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Morality and the Good Life. In Searching of Happiness and Human Flourishing. Ethics .
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Morality and the Good Life In Searching of Happiness and Human Flourishing
Ethics “Moral philosophy. The branch of philosophy that answers questions such as: Is there such a thing as the Good? What is ‘the good life?’ Is there such a thing as absolute duty? Are valid moral arguments possible? Are moral judgments based only on preference?”
Ethics • ‘Morality’ comes from the Latin mores, meaning a network of social customs and institutions – philosophy seeks to scrutinize those norms, to examine whether they are consistent and coherent, and so see how far they can be rationally justified.
Ethics • Metaethics • Normative Ethics • Applied Ethics • Moral Psychology • Descriptive Ethics
Ethics • Metaethics: “If ethics is a ‘first order’ analysis of morality 9e.g.,answering questions such as, What we must do to fulfill our duty?), metaethics is a ‘second order’ analysis of morality (e.g., answering questions such as What is the meaning of the word ‘duty’?). Metaethics, then, is the analysis of the meaning of moral concepts and of the logic of moral argumentation.”
Ethics • Normative Ethics: the practical means of determining the most moral course of action and behavior.
Ethics • Applied Ethics: how moral outcomes can be achieved in a specific situation using policies, laws, punishment, political action, etc.
Republic • The author of your book introduces you to the ideas Plato’s vision of justice in the state and the individual. • Live life accordance with reason – so goodness and virtue flow from an intellectual understanding of reality • Austere and high-minded ideals.
Republic Plato’s Tripartite Theory of the Soul
Republic • Plato raises the issue of whether goodness and virtue are really worthwhile for the individual. • Why should I be moral?
Republic • The Ring of Gyges – which makes the wearer become invisible at will. • How would we act if we could be sure of getting away with immoral conduct? • The hope of evading punishment or of being given a bribe or bonus, even by a supernatural agency, and even over a long haul into eternity.
Republic • In the myth, the ring of invisibility could have enabled Gyges to commit his crimes in serenity and peace of mind under Plato’s tripartite theory of the soul.
Question? WHY BE MORAL?
Nicomachean Ethics “Every are and every investigation, and similarly every action and pursuit, is considered to aim at some good. Hence the good has been rightly defined as that at which all things aim. Clearly, however, there is some difference between the ends at which they aim: some are activities and others results distinct from the actions, the results are by nature superior to the activates.” -Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics • In ethics we must be content to indicate the truth roughly and in outline. • The conception of happiness or the good may be read in the lives they lead. • The function of man is activity of the soul in accordance with reason. • A happy man is actively virtuous and adequately furnished with external goods.
Nicomachean Ethics • In emotion and action, virtue is a mean between two extremes of excess and deficiency. • This should not provide a decision procedure or criterion for determining what should be done on any given occasion. • Looks at ingrained patterns of action and desire over a whole lifetime – virtue as a disposition of character.
Nicomachean Ethics • “The patters of virtue which we aim to acquire, and instill into our children, are those which reason can recognize as making for a maximally worth while human life, a life where we can develop our human potentialities to the full.” p. 492
Questions? • What is virtue? • List some personal virtues. • Comments • Concerns
Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach – Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum • 1969 BA from NYU in Theater and Classics • 1972 MA from Harvard in Philosophy • 1975 PhD from Harvard in Philosophy • Philosophy of Law, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Ancient Greek Philosophy, and Feminism. • Teaches at the University of Chicago in both the Philosophy and Law department.
