Ethics

1. Ethics Living the good life, with good people doing the right thing

3. What does it mean to live a “good” life? Pearls of wisdom from: • OneRepublic • Kanye West • Miley Cyrus

4. Buddhist approach • All life is suffering which arises from desire, desire can be eliminated by following _______________ • Virtues play an important role; cultivating virtues like non-violence can help an individual attain nirvana • ______________________________________ • Everyone is _________________________________

5. Confucianist and Taoist approach • Confucianists see people as a part of a whole ___________ • ___________________________________and community are important • Taoism (Lao-Tzu) • Emphasize harmony with ______________

6. Stoic approach • Zeno (4th century BCE philosopher) • Happiness achieved through ___________ • Saw universe as ordered guided by ____________________________________________________________________________________________ • Seek to eliminate desires and accepting things that cannot be controlled

7. Hedonist approach • A good life is devoted to _______________ • Can be pleasures of the body or, as Epicurus advocated, pleasure of wisdom (_________________)

8. What makes a “good” person? • Virtue ethics • Although Plato wrote of virtues, Aristotle is credited with formulating theory • ___________________ (happiness in wisdom and satisfaction in one’s character) • People can be _____________________________– must know and choose “good” over “evil)

9. Ross’ virtue ethics • _____________ • Reparation • _____________ • Justice • _________________ • Self-improvement • Non-maleficence Duties that one had in order to strive to be a good person. “Goodness” is defined by one’s actions.

10. Existentialist answer • Soren Kierkegaard (19th century Danish philosopher) • People make their own moral choices and are ____________________________ • Authentic choices – consistent in __________, thought and action • Nietzsche – Rejected concept of a god. People determined their own values • Jean-Paul Sartre – people are ______________________________________ • Responsible for own moral choices…. Actions, beliefs and attitudes are a matter of choice.

11. Sartre • “For most, adolescence brings an unsettling awareness that the comforting framework of values taken for granted as children is not fixed and unchanging… This moment is crucial. If, on realizing this, people refuse to accept their freedom in the face of the collapse of their childhood faith, they choose a life of self-deception. They choose to deny their freedom”

12. Do the right thing…. Because a supreme being(s) told us to is the: Divine command ethicist response • That which we call God _____________________________________________

13. Euthypthro Dilemma

14. Do the right thing…. Because it brings about the maximum benefit for the most people Utilitarian response Morally right choices are those whose consequences will bring the ______________________________________________________________________________________________

15. Jeremy Bentham • Father of utilitarianism, a _______________t theory (focuses on consequences of moral acts) • Drew on ideas from _____________and Francis Hutcheson • Moral ledger

16. John Stuart Mill • Also a utilitarian but believed Bentham’s approach was too simplistic • Emphasized pleasures of the _______(intellectual and aesthetic) over ___________________ • Utilitarianism of Mill and Bentham are sometimes called _______ utilitarianism because their theories focus on a single act.

17. Three minute philosophy

18. Criticism of Utilitarianism • Is pleasure always good? Can other things like knowledge, friendship be good? If you take pleasure in drowning kittens is that “good”? • Tyranny of the majority • ______________________________________?

19. Three minute philosophy - Kant

20. The Kantian response • Having good will and acting on moral principles justified by reason are the same • We are responsible for being our own moral agent • Categorical imperative – ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Act only according to that maxim [principle or general rule] whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law of nature

21. Kant touch this! • Respect one another • _________________________________________ • Lying is morally wrong because it denies another’s autonomy and uses a person as a means to a liar’s end • Emphasis also placed on intent of moral agent • Categorical imperative ignores _____________ and focuses on duty • Also called _____________theory (deon – duty; logos – reason) a person is a person,no matter how small

22. Critics of Kantian ethics • Criticized the notion that consequences of actions are unimportant • Contemporary philosophers have criticized Kant’s theories for not taking into account ideas of _____________ to the _____________or _____of others.

23. Egoism and Intitutionism EGOISM • Consequentialist school of thought that posits that the people act on moral dilemmas based on whatever serves _____________own _______________ • Ayn Rand “there is no such thing as society… only individual men” INTUITIONISM • Moral truths are understood through _________ (independent of reason) • G.E. Moore, Richard Taylor