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70 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is ethics? |
The philosophical study of morality |
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What is morality? |
Beliefs concerning right and wrong, good and bad |
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What does it mean to be instrumentally (or extrinsically) valuable? |
Valuable as a means to something else |
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What does it mean to be intrinsically valuable? |
Valuable in itself, for its own sake |
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What is normative ethics? |
The study of the moral principles, rules, or theories that guide actions |
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What is metaethics? |
The study of the meaning and logical structure of moral beliefs |
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What is applied ethics? |
The application of moral norms to specific moral issues or cases |
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What is the Preeminence of Reason? |
Ethics involves, even requires, critical reasoning |
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What are the elements of ethics? |
* The Preeminence of Reason |
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What is The Universal Perspective? |
Ethics requires that moral judgments follow the principle of universalizability |
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What is the principle of universalizability? |
The idea that a moral statement applying in one situation must apply in all other situations that are relevantly similar |
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What is The Principle of Impartiality? |
The welfare and interests of each individual should be given the same weight as all others |
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What is descriptive ethics? |
The scientific study of moral beliefs and practices |
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What are the three major divisions of ethics? |
- normative ethics - metaethics - applied ethics |
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Many great religious thinkers have relied on reason to understand the truths of morality. True or false? |
True |
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Ethics gives us a royal road to moral truth. True or false? |
False |
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Embracing without question the moral beliefs of your culture can undermine your personal freedom. True or false? |
True |
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What is The Dominance of Moral Norms? |
When moral norms conflict with nonmoral norms, moral considerations win |
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What are the risks of not doing ethics? |
- loss of personal freedom - confused or mistaken views - stunted intellectual and moral growth |
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What is the divine command theory? |
Right actions are those willed by God |
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All major religious thinkers have accepted the divine command theory. True or false? |
False |
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Morality is both accessible and meaningful to us whether we are religious or not. True or false? |
True |
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Religious believers have no need to do ethics or moral reasoning. True or false? |
False |
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What is subjective relativism? |
The view that an action is right if one approves of it |
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What are the implications of subjective relativism? |
- Everyone is morally infallible - Genuine moral disagreement between individuals is nearly impossible - Moral judgments are a matter of preference (“taste”) |
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What is cultural relativism? |
The view that an action is morally right if one’s culture approves of it |
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What are the implications of cultural relativism? |
- cultures are morally infallible - cultural values cannot be criticized from outside the culture - social reformers within a culture are, by definition, morally wrong - moral progress is virtually impossible - if you have a disagreement with your culture about the rightness of an action, you automatically lose |
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What is the most common argument for cultural relativism? |
1. People’s judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture 2. If people’s judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture, then right and wrong are relative to culture and there are no objective moral principles 3. Therefore, right and wrong are relative to culture and there are no objective moral principles |
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What is the most common critique of cultural relativism? |
People may differ in their moral judgments, not because they accept different moral principles but because they have divergent nonmoral beliefs |
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According to cultural relativism, intolerance cannot be justified as easily as tolerance. True or false? |
False |
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Rejecting cultural relativism (embracing moral objectivism) does not entail intolerance. True or false? |
True |
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What is ethical objectivism? |
Some moral judgments are universal (valid for everyone) |
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What are the implications of ethical objectivism? |
- moral disagreements can be resolved using reasoning - moral judgments and actions can be evaluated according to objective standards |
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For a cultural relativist, when two people in the same culture disagree on a moral issue, what are they really disagreeing about? |
Whether their society endorses a particular view |
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Suppose a culture approves of beheading young women for merely holding hands with a man. According to cultural relativism, the beheadings are what? |
Objectively justified |
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Cultural relativism may be nearly impossible to apply to moral issues because of what fact about people in societies? |
There is no objective way for us to choose which society we belong to |
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What is critical reasoning (critical thinking)? |
The careful, systematic evaluation of statements and arguments |
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What is a statement (claim)? |
The assertion that something is either true or false |
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What is an argument? |
A group of statements, one of which is supposed to be supported by the rest |
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What is a conclusion? |
A statement that is being supported by other statements |
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What is a premise? |
A supporting statement |
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What is the intent of an argument? |
To prove something |
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What is the most reliable way to identify an argument? |
Find the conclusion first |
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What is moral reasoning? |
Ordinary critical reasoning applied to moral arguments |
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What are the conclusion indicators? |
- consequently - hence - it follows that - thus - so - it must be that - as a result |
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What are the premise indicators? |
- because - since - for - given that - due to the fact that - for the reason that - the reason being - assuming that - as indicated by |
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What is a deductive argument? |
An argument that is supposed to give logically conclusive support to its conclusion |
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What is an inductive argument? |
An argument that is supposed to give probable support to its conclusion |
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What makes an argument valid? |
When it gives logically conclusive support to its conclusion |
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What makes an argument invalid? |
When it does not give logically conclusive support to its conclusion |
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What makes an argument sound? |
When it's a valid argument with true premises |
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What makes an argument strong? |
When it gives probable support to its conclusion |
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What makes an argument weak? |
When it does not give probable support to its conclusion |
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What makes an argument cogent? |
When it's a strong argument with true premises |
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In an argument, if the premises are true, the conclusion must be what (true or false)? |
True |
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What does an affirming the antecedent argument look like? |
If p, then q. p. Therefore, q. |
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Is an affirming the antecedent argument valid or invalid? |
Valid |
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What does a denying the consequent argument look like? |
If p, then q. Not q. Therefore, not p. |
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Is a denying the consequent argument valid or invalid? |
Valid |
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What does a denying the antecedent argument look like? |
If p, then q. Not p. Therefore, not q. |
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Is a denying the antecedent argument valid or invalid? |
Invalid |
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What does an affirming the consequent argument look like? |
If p, then q. q. Therefore, p. |
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Is an affirming the consequent argument valid or invalid? |
Invalid |
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What does a hypothetical syllogism argument look like? |
If p, then q. If q, then r. Therefore, if p, then r. |
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Is a hypothetical syllogism argument valid or invalid? |
Valid |
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What is a moral statement? |
A statement affirming that an action is right or wrong, or that a person’s motive or character is good or bad |
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Every moral argument should have at least what? |
A moral statement as a premise and a nonmoral statement as a premise |
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How does one test a moral premise? |
Using counterexamples |
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What are the fallacies common in moral reasoning? |
- Equivocation |
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What is the fallacy used in the following passage known as? |
Straw man |