User:Atcovi/Ethics/Mid-Term Review

PHILOSOPHY 220: Ethics – Midterm Exam Review

Topics:

Descriptive ethics vs. normative ethics

Socrates/Plato/Aristotle

-        Socrates

o  Single Truth, unobtainable

o  Why is he the wisest?

o  Soul is most important

o  The Euthypro dilemma (Is it pious because the gods love it OR do the gods love it because it is pious?)

-        Sophists

o  Relativism; Rhetoric

o  Gorgias, Protagoras, Antiphon

Moral Relativism

-        Cultural Relativism/Ethical Relativism

-        Moral Nihilism/Moral Skepticism

-        Hard/Soft Universalism

-        Ruth Benedict

o  Acculturalization

-        Counter Arguments (including: tolerance as advantage/disadvantage to Moral Relativism)

Egoism/Altruism

-        Psychological Egoism

o  Thomas Hobbes

o  Plato: Ring of Gyges

-        Ethical Egoism

o  Ayn Rand

-        Altruism

Utilitarianism

-        “Greatest good for the greatest number”

-        Consequentialism

-        Jeremy Bentham/Hedonistic Utilitarianism

-        J.S. Mill/Preference Utilitarianism

o  Higher and Lower Pleasures

o  Harm Principle

o  Elitist vs. Paternalist\

-        Rule vs. Act Utilitarianism

David Hume

-        Reason is inert; Only the passions can motivate

-        “Reason is, and ought to be, a slave to the passions”

-        Is/Ought Gap (Naturalistic Fallacy)

-        Sympathy/extended sympathy

Immanuel Kant

-        Deontology

-        Good Will

-        First and second formulation of the Categorical Imperative

-        Autonomy; Personhood

-        Kingdom of Ends

-        Advantages and counter arguments

Essay Options:

'''1.     Explain J.S. Mill’s version of utilitarianism. This should include his particular understanding of the “greatest happiness principle” and higher and lower pleasures. Is Mill biased toward intellectual pleasures? Why or why not? How could Mill’s utilitarianism answer the “lonesome stranger” problem (be sure to include why it was a problem for Bentham)? In your opinion, is utilitarianism the best ethical option for society? Why or why not?'''