Ethical Language

Question 1

What is normative ethics?

Answer 1

• Normative ethical theories attempt to devise a system for determining which actions are good and which are bad.

Question 2

define moral realism

Answer 2

• the view that moral properties exist in reality
• moral statements are objective and realist.
• good and bad exist independently of us

Question 3

define moral anti-realism

Answer 3

• The view that moral properties (like goodness/badness) do not exist in reality.
• moral starements are subjective and cannot be proved true or false
• subjective and non-cognitive

Question 4

Define:
- cognitivism
- non-cognitivism

Answer 4

• Cognitivism: ethical language expresses beliefs about reality which can therefore be true or false, thorugh verification and falsification
• Non-cognitivism: ethical language expresses some non-cognition like an emotion, does not attempt to describe reality and therefore cannot be true or false.

Question 5

Name the moral realist meta-ethical theories

Answer 5

1. Ethical naturalism
2. Ethical non-naturalism/intuitionism

Question 6

Describe ethical naturalism

Answer 6

• the view that goodness is something real in the natural (physical) world – which can be empirically verified and falsified.
• able to reduce goodness from its objective moral properties to natural properties.
  • It reduces morality to other natural properties which can be observed so that ethical statements become propositions which can be verified or falsified.

Question 7

Describe utilitarian’s foundation in ethical naturalism

Answer 7

• a utilitarian equates goodness to ‘happiness. Therefore, through observation, it is possible to test whether an action leads to happiness or not, which makes it moral or immoral.
- Mill supports (EN) by arguing that the only evidence we have of something being desirable is that people actually desire it. This means that moral concepts like “good” can be grounded in empirical observations of human behavior. As happiness is universally desired, Mill concludes that happiness is, therefore, a natural and fundamental good.
- • This desirability is “all the proof the case admits of” that happiness is a good thing

Question 8

Describe Aristotelian naturalism

Answer 8

. Aristotle claims that goodness = eudaimonia (flourishing). Flourishing is a factual feature of natural organisms. - Philippa Foot defends this view, pointing to the example of plants.
There is a factual, natural difference between a plant that is flourishing and a plant that is not. The same is true for humans.

Question 9

Name the criticisms / weaknesses of ethical naturalism

Answer 9

• naturalistic fallacy: Moore
• Hume’s is/ought gap
• the open question argument

Question 10

Describe Hume’s is/ought gap

Answer 10

• attempts to show that moral judgments cannot be inferred from facts.
• Hume said philosophers talk about the way things are and then jump with no apparent justification to a claim about the way things ought to be.
• you cannot deduce a value from a fact
• Hume proposes that ethical language comes from ‘the heart’, not ‘the understanding’. It expresses an ‘active feeling or sentiment’. This makes the is-ought gap also an argument against cognitivism and for non-cognitivism.

Question 11

Describe how Hume’s argument can be applied to Bentham

Answer 11

• P1. It is human nature to find pleasure good (fact – ‘is-statement’).
• C1. Pleasure is good and we ought to maximise pleasure (value – ‘ought’ statement).
• Hume’s point is that this is not a valid deduction. This conclusion does not follow, is not justified, by that premise.
• This doesn’t mean that pleasure is good and that we ought to maximise pleasure.

Question 12

Evaluate Hume’s is/ought argument

Answer 12

• strong in undermining EN : If moral judgments cannot be validly inferred from observable features of the world, then ethical naturalism fails to provide a sound, objective basis for morality.
• R: Patricia Churchland proposes that Hume’s argument only targets deductive reasoning from is to ought. Could take Bentham and Mill’s arguments for utilitarian naturalism as inductive. Pleasure being our natural end doesn’t deductively entail/mean pleasure is good, but it is inductive evidence for pleasure being good. So, Hume’s critique doesn’t apply.
• John Searle

Question 13

Describe Moore’s naturalistic fallacy

Answer 13

• Moore believes it is fallacy to assume that something being natural means that it is good, and that EN are wrong in using a non-ethical term ( a natural property) to explain an ethical term.
• Moore concluded that we can’t define goodness. We can’t say what goodness is because it is only itself – it is sui generis.

Question 14

Evalauate Moore’s naturalistic fallacy

Answer 14

• Moore’s insistence on the uniqueness of moral properties leads to ethical non-naturalism, making moral knowledge difficult to justify.
• If “good” cannot be analyzed through empirical or natural terms, critics question how we can understand or justify moral claims.
• use any evaluations of ethical non-naturalism

Question 15

Give the open question criticism of EN

- moore

Answer 15

• Moore argued that if naturalism were true, the result would be illogical.
• Moore argues that if “goodness” were equivalent to a natural property like “pleasure,” then the statement “goodness = pleasure” would be a tautology and uninformative, but because it is actually informative and meaningful, moral properties cannot be reduced to natural properties, disproving ethical naturalism.

Question 16

Evaluate the strength of the open question argument to EN

Answer 16

• WEAKNESS : contend that the open question argument may be question-begging. Moore assumes that “good” is an indefinable, simple property, but this assumption is precisely what ethical naturalists dispute. The argument, then, might be seen as begging the question against ethical naturalism, rather than refuting it on independent grounds.
• STRENGTH; challenges ethical naturalism by demonstrating that moral terms like “good” cannot be adequately defined in terms of natural properties. If “good” were identical to a natural property, such as pleasure or evolutionary fitness, then questions like “Is pleasure good?” would be closed and trivial. However, these questions remain meaningful and open, suggesting that moral goodness cannot be reduced to or equated with natural properties.

use weakness for rebuttal and strength for defence / eval

Question 17

Describe intuitionism

Question 18

Evaluate intuitionism

Question 19

What is emotivism

Question 20

Evaluate emotivism

Question 21

Describe prescriptivism

Answer 21

• aim of moral judgements is to guide others : to tell them what they ought to do

Question 21

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of prescriptivism

Question 22

Give Aquinas’ moral argument for God’s existence

Answer 22

P1: Everything in the world that exists is more or less good. There are varying degrees of excellence.
P2: There cannot be an infinite scale of good.
C: Therefore there must be something that is perfection. Aquinas understands this to be God.

Question 23

Define theonomy

Answer 23

• is a Christian form of morality which believes that morality stems from God and therefore it is impossible to separate religion and morality
• it is a form of dependence

Question 24

Give quotes for “ there is a link between religion”

Answer 24

- “ the natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do and what we must avoid” Aquinas - “ The good consists in always doing what God wills at any particular moment. Brunner - “ without God everything is permitted” Dostoyevsky

Question 25

Describe Divine Command Theory

Question 26

Describe the Euthyphro dilemma

Answer 26

- “ the good consists in always doing what God wills at any particular moment”

Question 27

Evaluate the divine command theory

Answer 27

strengths: - ethics is objective - gives people the motivation to live

Question 28

Describe Aquinas’ ( NML) view on theonomy

Question 29

what is autonomous ethics

Answer 29

- presents a form of moral decision making where what is deemed moral is independent of any external sources ( deemed intrixinc) but is decided by one’s self.

Question 30

Give three scholars who criticise theonomous ethics and favour autonomous ethics

Answer 30

- Aj Ayer , - Ac Grayling

Question 31

Briefly describe heternomous ethics

Question 32

Evaluate heteronomous ethics

Answer 32

- strength : allows for comprehensive moral teachings that can adapt to new situations while stating rooted in tradition

Question 33

Give two examples of when religion is seeen as directly opposed to morality

Answer 33

- the Quiverfull movement - Westbrook Baptist Church

Question 34

Evaluate the success of autonomous ethics

Answer 34

- subverts moral debate - Based on the use of reason

Question 35

Give Nietzsche view on the relationship between morality and religion

Answer 35

- “ slave morality” - suffering and weakness are admired

Question 36

Describe Kane’s view of morality

Answer 36

- deontological - absolutist

Question 37

Give the difference between categorical imperative and hypothetical statement

Answer 37

- believed that morality is experienced as a command or imperative. - hypothetical imperatives are conditional : if x occurs I should do y. - categorical imperative are ones that

Question 38

Describe Kant’s first formulation

Answer 38

1. Universal Law Formulation: - moral dilemmas are invariably complex ridden with hypothetical imperatives in which we feel compelled to pursue certain ends for ourselves and others.

Question 39

Describe Kant’s second formulation

Answer 39

- end in itself. - Act in such a way at that you treat humanity , whether in your own person or in the person of any other other, never merely as a means to and end, but always at the same time as an end.

Question 40

Describe Kant’s view on freedom

Answer 40

- it is to considering rationally what I will to be universalised when I am expressing my freedom to follow pre set rules , chosen by others

Question 41

Describe the relationship between Formulation One and Two

Answer 41

- Kant asserts that to treat a person as a mere means is to undermine the principle of rational autonomy within them. - I cannot make a rule means is to undermine

Question 42

Describe the third of formulation

Answer 42

-‘ so act if you were though your maxims a law making member of the kingdom of ends’

Question 43

Evaluate Kantian Ethics

Answer 43

( see document)

Question 44

Describe Ross’ addition to deontological theory

Answer 44

- when duties conflict , Ross says: - prima facie ( first instance ) and self evident and obvious duties. - actual duties

Question 45

How compatible are these aspects of Kant’s ethics with a religious approach

Answer 45

Compatible: - thé idea of a moral law given by God supports the concepts of absolutes. - the idea of reason is present in NML