Ethics for A-Level for AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Psychology and the Aims of Normative Ethics”
Regina A. Rini (forthcoming). “Psychology and the Aims of Normative Ethics”. To appear in Springer Handbook of Neuroethics (ed. J. Clausen and N. Levy). Psychology and the Aims of Normative Ethics Regina A. Rini University of Oxford [email protected] Abstract: This chapter discusses the philosophical relevance of empirical research on moral cognition. It distinguishes three central aims of normative ethical theory: understanding the nature of moral agency, identifying morally right actions, and determining the justification of moral beliefs. For each of these aims, the chapter considers and rejects arguments against employing cognitive scientific research in normative inquiry. It concludes by suggesting that, whichever of the central aims one begins from, normative ethics is improved by engaging with the science of moral cognition. Key words: is/ought gap, moral agency, moral intuition, moral philosophy, ought-implies- can I. Three Central Questions of Normative Ethics It is undeniable that the field of empirical moral psychology has grown dramatically in the last decade, with new experimental techniques allowing us unprecedented understanding of the causal and computational structures of the human moral faculty. Or, at least, it is undeniable that this research contributes to a descriptive project, one of better understanding the facts about who we are and how we think.1 But what might be denied is that these investigations have much to offer to normative ethics, a distinctively prescriptive sort of inquiry.2 The purpose of this chapter is to show why normative ethics - the study of 1 Although this chapter discusses quite a range of psychological findings, it is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of the empirical literature. -
Infinite Ethics
INFINITE ETHICS Nick Bostrom Faculty of Philosophy Oxford University [Published in Analysis and Metaphysics, Vol. 10 (2011): pp. 9-59] [This is the final version. Earlier versions: 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009] www.nickbostrom.com ABSTRACT Aggregative consequentialism and several other popular moral theories are threatened with paralysis: when coupled with some plausible assumptions, they seem to imply that it is always ethically indifferent what you do. Modern cosmology teaches that the world might well contain an infinite number of happy and sad people and other candidate value-bearing locations. Aggregative ethics implies that such a world contains an infinite amount of positive value and an infinite amount of negative value. You can affect only a finite amount of good or bad. In standard cardinal arithmetic, an infinite quantity is unchanged by the addition or subtraction of any finite quantity. So it appears you cannot change the value of the world. Modifications of aggregationism aimed at resolving the paralysis are only partially effective and cause severe side effects, including problems of “fanaticism”, “distortion”, and erosion of the intuitions that originally motivated the theory. Is the infinitarian challenge fatal? 1. The challenge 1.1. The threat of infinitarian paralysis When we gaze at the starry sky at night and try to think of humanity from a “cosmic point of view”, we feel small. Human history, with all its earnest strivings, triumphs, and tragedies can remind us of a colony of ants, laboring frantically to rearrange the needles of their little ephemeral stack. We brush such late-night rumination aside in our daily life and analytic 1 philosophy. -
PHIL 269: Philosophy of Sex and Love: Course Outline
PHIL 269: Philosophy of Sex and Love: Course Outline 1. Title of Course: Philosophy of Sex and Love 2. Catalogue Description: The course investigates philosophical questions regarding the nature of sex and love, including questions such as: what is sex? What is sexuality? What is love? What kinds of love are possible? What is the proper morality of sexual behavior? Does gender, race, or class influence how we approach these questions? The course will consider these questions from an historical perspective, including philosophical, theological and psychological approaches, and then follow the history of ideas from ancient times into contemporary debates. A focus on the diversity theories and perspectives will be emphasized. Topics to be covered may include marriage, reproduction, casual sex, prostitution, pornography, and homosexuality. 3. Prerequisites: PHIL 110 4. Course Objectives: The primary course objectives are: To enable students to use philosophical methods to understand sex and love To enable students to follow the history of ideas regarding sex and love To enable students to understand contemporary debates surrounding sex and love in their diversity To enable students to see the connections between the history of ideas and their contemporary meanings To enable students to use (abstract, philosophical) theories to analyze contemporary debates 5. Student Learning Outcomes The student will be able to: Define the direct and indirect influence of historical thinkers on contemporary issues Define and critically discuss major philosophical issues regarding sex and love and their connections to metaphysics, ethics and epistemology Analyze, explain, and criticize key passages from historical texts regarding the philosophy of sex and love. -
Introduction–Plausible, Norms of Warfare: Reducing the Gap
Introduction – Plausible, Norms of Warfare: Reducing the Gap Between the Normative and the Empirical Ariel Colonomos, Richard Beardsworth To cite this version: Ariel Colonomos, Richard Beardsworth. Introduction – Plausible, Norms of Warfare: Reducing the Gap Between the Normative and the Empirical. European Review of International Studies, CERI- Sciences Po/Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), 2020, 7 (2), pp.193 - 202. hal-03082964 HAL Id: hal-03082964 https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03082964 Submitted on 18 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. European Review of International Studies 7 (2020) 193-202 Introduction – Plausible, Norms of Warfare: Reducing the Gap Between the Normative and the Empirical Ariel Colonomos CNRS-CERI, Sciences Po, Paris, France [email protected] Richard Beardsworth Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, Leeds, UK [email protected] Abstract This special issue argues in favor of a new approach to the study of norms of warfare, which combines a normative analysis of ethical problems arising in war with an explanatory analysis of the use of force. Norms of warfare go as far back as Antiquity, and their study has followed a long historical path. -
Western Philosophy Rev
Designed by John Cornet, Phoenix HS (Ore) Western Philosophy rev. September 2012 The very process of philosophy has been a driving force in the tranformation of the world. From the figure who dwells upon how to achieve power, to the minister who contemplates the paradox of the only truth (their faith) yet which is also stagnent, to the astronomers who are searching the stars for signs of other civilizations, to the revolutionaries who sought to construct a national government which would protect the rights of the minority, the very exercise of philosophy and philosophical thought is at a core of human nature. Philosophy addresses what are sometimes called the "big questions." These include questions of morality and ethics, ideology/faith,, politics, the truth of knowledge, the nature of reality, and the meaning of human existance (...just to name a few!) (Religion addresses some of the same questions, but while philosophy and religion overlap in some questions, they can and do differ significantly in the approach they take to answering them.) Subject Learning Outcomes Skills-Based Learning Outcomes Behavioral Expectations and Grading Policy Develop an appreciation for and enjoyment of Organize, maintain and learn how to study from a learning, particularly in how learning should subject-specific notebook Attendance, participation and cause us to question what we think we know Be able to demonstrate how to take notes (including being prepared are daily and have a willingness to entertain new utilizing two-column format) expectations perspectives on issues. Be able to engage in meaningful, substantive discussion A classroom culture of respect and Students will develop familiarity with major with others. -
Moral Values
MORAL VALUES Moral values are one basis on which we make decisions–right or wrong? good or evil? Other bases are financial, convenient, aesthetic (an artist), arbitrary (flipping a coin), physical/health, rational (investigating a product before buying). INDIVIDUAL MORALITY AND SOCIAL MORALITY Individual morality This provides the basis of decisions of and judgments by the individual: honesty, loyalty, good faith, being responsible Social morality Fairness is one basis of law, which helps to govern society and to control individual behavior. Social morality considers whether an action threatens society’s well-being.. Conflict. Individual morality and social morality may conflict. Is the free downloading/sharing of music from the Internet a copyright violation? Is using text downloaded from the Internet without footnotes in student papers plagiarism? Should the government regulate non-harmful sexual acts by consenting adults in their own homes or adults reading pornography at home? MORAL RELATIVISM VERSUS MORAL ABSOLUTISM Individual relativism Right and wrong depend on the social or moral commitments of the individual. Situational relativism Right and wrong vary depending on the particular situation. Cultural relativism Moral norms vary by culture; right and wrong depend on the moral norms of the society: female infanticide in China, suttee in India, slavery. Moral absolutism Absolute standards exist by which all rules, commitments and behavior can be judged. The fact that moral commitments vary in different societies does not mean that morality is relative, just as the fact that scientific beliefs may differ in various societies does not prove that scientific truth is relative. MORAL PRINCIPLES APPLYING TO INDIVIDUALS The rules that most of us think of as morality are based on principles. -
Below the Belt: Situational Ethics for Uniethical Situations
The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 7 Issue 4 July Article 2 July 1980 Below the Belt: Situational Ethics for Uniethical Situations Gale Goldberg University of Louisville Joy Elliott University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Goldberg, Gale and Elliott, Joy (1980) "Below the Belt: Situational Ethics for Uniethical Situations," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 7 : Iss. 4 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol7/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you by the Western Michigan University School of Social Work. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BELOW THE BELT: SITUATIONAL ETHICS FOR UNIETHICAL SITUATIONS Gale Goldberg, Ed.D. Jqy Elliott, M.S.S.Uj. Associate Professor Assistant Professor Kent School of Social Work Kent School of Social Work University of Louisville University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky 40208 Louisville, Kentucky 40208 The word "politics" generally conjures up images of smoke- filled, back rooms where unscrupulous men in shirt sleeves chew their cigars and make shady deals that serve partisan interests. But politics is neither inherently shady nor specific to back rooms. In fact, as long as society is differentiated along ethnic, sex and social class lines, politics pervades all of social life. You are involved in politics and so is your mother. A statement or decision is political when either the content of the issue is viewed differently by. people from different social groups, e.g. race, sex, age, or the decision has different con- sequences for different social groups, or both. -
Consequentialism and Moral Responsibility
Consequentialism and Moral Responsibility Draft of September 2015 Elinor Mason For Christian Seidel (ed.) Consequentialism: new directions, new problems? OUP, forthcoming. There are two different ways of thinking about the relationship between consequentialism and moral responsibility. First, we might think that consequentialism can give us an account of responsibility. I discuss this possibility briefly, and then set it aside. The other way of thinking about the relationship is the focus of this paper. The question that concerns me, is, to what extent is a normative theory, consequentialism in particular, constrained by requirements that stem from concerns about responsibility? 1. Consequentialist Accounts of Moral Responsibility J.J.C. Smart suggests that we can extend consequentialist reasoning about morality to reasoning about responsibility. One of the attractions of consequentialism is that it provides such a straightforward and attractive account of justification for our moral practices. Why do we pay our taxes, treat each other with respect, look after each other and so on? Because doing so has good consequences. However, this sort of justification, though very appealing when considering moral practice, becomes extremely counterintuitive in other sorts of case. For example, it seems obvious that justification for beliefs cannot be consequentialist. Beliefs must be justified in some way that relates to their truth, though of course there is disagreement about exactly what makes a belief justified. Similarly, so a familiar line of thought goes, whether or not someone is responsible for an act, or for anything else, cannot be determined by looking at the consequences of holding them responsible. The claim that 1 responsibility can be understood in a consequentialist way seems like a category mistake.1 Smart’s view might be correct that, insofar as praising and blaming are actions, consequentialists should take the value of the consequences of performing those acts as the relevant factor in deciding whether or not to perform them. -
Environmental Ethics Anthropocentrism
Environmental Ethics Anthropocentrism Introduction Anthropcentrism is the world view that places human beings as the center of the cosmos Five Interconnected Themes: 1) natural order has a grand hierarchy (a “Great Chain of Being) 2) the ontological divide between human and nonhuman nature 3) nature as a machine 4) only humans beings have intrinsic value/nature has only instrumental value 5) the moral community is limited to human beings Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) The Summa Contra Gentiles develops the ethical implications of the Great Chain of Being humans are closest to the likeness of God rational creatures exercise free will God bestows intrinsic value on rational creatures “Accordingly intellectual creatures are ruled by God, as though He cared for them for their own sake, while other creatures are ruled as being directed to rational creatures” (63) other creatures are slaves to their environment their actions casually determined by the environment thus human beings alone are morally considerable only human beings have freedom “he is free who is cause of himself . intellectual nature alone is free” human beings have the right to subjugate other beings below on the hierarchy “Hereby is refuted the error of those who said it is sinful for man to kill dumb animals: for by divine providence they are intended for man’s use in the natural order” (64) anticipating Kant, the only danger in killing dumb animals is that such behavior might lead to cruelty to human beings Francis Bacon (1561-1626) The Great Instauration focus of knowledge should be practical the improvement of the human condition knowledge is power over nature “the roads to human power and to human knowledge lie close together, and are nearly the same” this view of knowledge as power is stated more clearly in New Organon (1620) Title refers to Aristotle’s logical and methodological works known collectively as the Organon this will be a new organon, thus a new scientific method “Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. -
Philosophy Sunday, July 8, 2018 12:01 PM
Philosophy Sunday, July 8, 2018 12:01 PM Western Pre-Socratics Fanon Heraclitus- Greek 535-475 Bayle Panta rhei Marshall Mcluhan • "Everything flows" Roman Jakobson • "No man ever steps in the same river twice" Saussure • Doctrine of flux Butler Logos Harris • "Reason" or "Argument" • "All entities come to be in accordance with the Logos" Dike eris • "Strife is justice" • Oppositional process of dissolving and generating known as strife "The Obscure" and "The Weeping Philosopher" "The path up and down are one and the same" • Theory about unity of opposites • Bow and lyre Native of Ephesus "Follow the common" "Character is fate" "Lighting steers the universe" Neitzshce said he was "eternally right" for "declaring that Being was an empty illusion" and embracing "becoming" Subject of Heideggar and Eugen Fink's lecture Fire was the origin of everything Influenced the Stoics Protagoras- Greek 490-420 BCE Most influential of the Sophists • Derided by Plato and Socrates for being mere rhetoricians "Man is the measure of all things" • Found many things to be unknowable • What is true for one person is not for another Could "make the worse case better" • Focused on persuasiveness of an argument Names a Socratic dialogue about whether virtue can be taught Pythagoras of Samos- Greek 570-495 BCE Metempsychosis • "Transmigration of souls" • Every soul is immortal and upon death enters a new body Pythagorean Theorem Pythagorean Tuning • System of musical tuning where frequency rations are on intervals based on ration 3:2 • "Pure" perfect fifth • Inspired -
Other Moral Theories : Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, Etc
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS 30 Other Moral Theories: Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, etc. 1 Jan Franciszek Jacko Metaethics includes moral theories that contain assumptions which answer some metaphysical and epistemological questions about moral goods and values. The metaphysical questions (such as What are, and how do moral goods and values exist?) are about the nature and existence of moral goods and values. Epistemological questions (such as Can we know moral goods and values? If so, what are the sources of knowledge about them?) regard sources of knowledge about moral goods, values and criteria of moral evaluations.2 Assumptions of ethical subjectivism, relativism, decisionism, emotivism and intuitionism are exemplary answers to these questions. We call their answers “normative assumptions.” There are at least three good reasons to ask and answer such questions. First, without answering them, moral judgments remain ambiguous. For example, if I say, “Action X is wrong,” the judgement has several meanings. To specify its sense, I should clarify my normative assumptions. For example, I can assume metaphysical subjectivism (anti-realism) or realism in metaethics. According to the former assumption, my above judgment about X is not about reality; it is about my or someone’s opinion. In this case, the exact meaning of this judgement is: someone evaluates X as morally wrong. If I assume the counter-assumption of metaphysical realism (anti-subjectivism), I mean that it is true that X has the property of moral wrongness. Second, these assumptions are conductive to peculiar practices. To specify the practice, which follows from moral judgments, one has to determine some normative assumptions. -
The Health Care Ethics: Overview of the Basics
Open Journal of Nursing, 2019, 9, 183-187 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojn ISSN Online: 2162-5344 ISSN Print: 2162-5336 The Health Care Ethics: Overview of the Basics Ahmed Bait Amer Sultan Qaboose University Hospital, Muscat, Oman How to cite this paper: Amer, A.B. (2019) Abstract The Health Care Ethics: Overview of the Basics. Open Journal of Nursing, 9, 183-187. In this overview we answers certain Questions in order to increase the https://doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2019.92017 awareness towards the basic of the health care ethics: what is ethics, what are the several fields of ethics connected to medical activities, what are the types Received: January 14, 2019 Accepted: February 22, 2019 of Ethical approaches in relation to the medical practice. Conclusion: Published: February 25, 2019 Through understanding the basics of the ethics, the awareness of the medical ethics in the health care can be increased. Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Keywords Commons Attribution International Ethics, Medical Ethics, Normative, Non Normative License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access 1. Introduction Medicine and health care deal with human health, life, and death, and medical ethics deals with ethical norms for the practice of medicine and health care or how it ought to be done so the concerns of medical ethics are among the most important and consequential in human life [1]. Physicians and nurses common- ly encounter ethical and legal issues in their work place; however many of these professionals are either unaware of their importance or unable to appropriately deal with these issues [2] remarkably.