Pre-finals Reviewer

• Meta-ethics


  Deals with questions like: Are there objective moral truths? What do the words 'good,' 'bad,' 'right' and 'wrong' mean? Are moral judgments a matter of subjective personal feeling?
• Meta-ethical theories


  • Cognitivist
  • Non-cognitivist
• Cognitivism


  Moral judgements convey propositions
• Forms of cognitive ethics


  • Moral realism
  • Ethical subjectivism
• Non-cognitivism


  Ethical sentences do not convey authentic propositions, hence are neither true nor false
• Emotivism


  A method of non-cognitivist theory that submits that moral judgements are mere expressions of our emotion and feelings
• Moral universalism


  Also called moral objectivism
• Moral rationalism


  Moral facts and principle are knowable by reason alone and without reference to experience
• Moral intuitionism


  Moral truths are knowable by immediate, instinctive knowledge without reference to any evidence
• Deontology


  A classification of normative ethics that bases morality on independent moral rules
• Teleology


  Comes from the Greek word "telos" which means "end". A teleological ethical system judges the rightness of an act in terms of an external goal or purpose
• Applied ethical issues


  • Bioethics
  • Sexual Ethics
  • Environmental Ethics
  • Social Ethics
• Four primary types of law (Aquinas)

  • Eternal Law
  • Natural Law
  • Human Law
  • Divine Law
• Eternal Law


  The rational plan of God by which all creation is ordered
• Divine Law


  Disclose through sacred text or scriptures and the church that is also directed toward man's eternal end
• Legal Rights


  Enjoys the recognition and protection of the law
• Human rights


  Cannot be reduced to, or exclusively identified, with legal rights. Human rights are meant to apply to all human beings universally, regardless of whether they have attained legal recognition by all countries
• Utilitarianism


  Derived from the Latin word "utilis" which means "useful". It is essentially opposed to ethical theories that consider God's will or some inner sense or faculty like the conscience, to be the final arbiter of morality. It is the most influential consequantialist theory
• Utilitarian ethics


  The right course of action is one that maximizes overall happiness
• Rawls' First Principle of social justice

  The Liberty Principle, which concerns political institutions
• Rawls' concept of social justice

  Justice as Fairness, which consists of two principles
• Consequentialist Ethics


  Actions, rules, or policies should be ethically measured and evaluated by their consequences and not by the intentions or motives of the agent
• Consequentialists


  Believe that there is no class of actions which must be ruled out in advance independent of their consequences
• Distributive justice


  Rewards and costs are allocated according to the designated distributive norms of the group
• Norm


  The standard of behavior that is required, desired, or designated as normal within a specific group
• Ethics (for Aristotle)


  The inquiry into the human good
• Happiness (for Aquinas)


  Consists in activities in accordance with virtue. All actions are directed towards ends and happiness is the final end
• Happiness (for Kant)


  Can be corrupting and may be worthless or even positively evil when not combined with a good will
• Kant's view on ethical judgments

  Categorically rejects that they are based on feelings
• What is legal is not always moral
• Rights-based ethics


  There are some rights, both positive and negative, that all humans have based only on the fact that they are human
• Classifications of normative ethical theories

  • Deontology
  • Teleology
  • Virtue Ethics
• Applied ethical subfields

  • Bioethics
  • Environmental ethics
  • Business ethics
  • Sexual ethics
  • Social ethics
• Four primary types of law (Aquinas)

  • Eternal Law
  • Natural Law
  • Human Law
  • Divine Law
• Rawls' Two Principles


  • The Liberty Principle
  • Fair Equality of Opportunity
• Common types of distributive norm

  • Equity
  • Equality
  • Power
  • Need
  • Responsibility