Moral Philosophy

Front 1

What are the 6 Theories of Well-Being?

Back 1

Simple Hedonism (Bentham)

Qualitative Hedonism (Mill)

Non-hedonistic Mental State

Desire Satisfaction

Informed Desire Satisfaction

Objective List

Front 2

What is the basic question at hand when we talk about Theories of Well-Being?

Back 2

"What makes a person's life go well?"

OR

"In what does a genuinely good life consist?"

Front 3

What is the Simple Hedonism Theory of Well-Being

Back 3

Well-being is PLEASURE (a kind of mental state)

Front 4

What four circumstances determine the value of pleasure?

Back 4

1. Its intensity.

2. Its duration.

3. Its certainty or uncertainty.

4. Its propinquity or remoteness.

Front 5

What two additional circumstances help to estimate the tendency of an act?

Back 5

5. Its fecundity, or the chance it has of being followed by sensations of the same kind: that is, pleasures, if it be a pleasure: pains, if it be a pain.

6. Its purity, or the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind: that is, pains, if it be a pleasure: pleasures, if it be a pain.

Front 6

What is Qualitative Hedonism?

Back 6

Well-being is pleasure but there are qualitative differences between different kinds of pleasure; there are different kinds of pleasurable mental state.

Front 7

What is Non-hedonistic mental state theory?

Back 7

Well-being is defined in terms of a mental state but there are a plurality of valuable mental states (e.g., pleasure, love, clarity of thought, bitter truth )

Front 8

What is Desire/preference satisfaction theory?

Back 8

Well-being consists in satisfaction of a person’s (present) desires/preferences

Front 9

What is Informed Desire/Preference Satisfaction theory?

Back 9

Well-being consists in satisfaction of rational and informed desires (e.g., what one would desire for oneself if one was fully informed and rational).

** A person can be (radically) mistaken about her/his own well-being.)

Front 10

What is Objective List theory?

Back 10

There is a variety of kinds of non-moral value for human beings (e.g., a plurality of intrinsically valuable activities and projects).

** Life, friendship, knowledge, pleasure, significant accomplishment and aesthetic experience.

Front 11

Forms of (non-)hedonism offer what kind of accounts for well being?

Back 11

Mental State Accounts

Front 12

Desire/Preference satisfaction theories offer what kind of account for well being?

Back 12

State of the World Accounts

Front 13

Objective List theory is probably what kind of account of well being?

Back 13

A state of the world account

Front 14

What is The Experience Requirement?

Back 14

The quality or success or goodness of a person’s life can only be affected (either negatively or positively) by events, states of affairs, or activities etc. that affect the conscious experience of the person.

Front 15

What are some important cases to keep in mind when thinking about the experience requirement?

Back 15

Experience machine

Preferences about strangers (Kravinsky)

Undetected infidelity

Post-mortem desire frustration/satisfaction

Front 16

What is the Unrestricted Desire Fulfillment?

Back 16

What is best for a person is what would best fulfill all of his desires throughout his life

Front 17

What is the problem of Unrestricted Desire Fulfillment?

Back 17

The satisfaction of some (reasonable) desires do not contribute the success of one’s life

(e.g., desire that stranger’s disease is cured)

Front 18

What is Success Version of Desire Fulfillment?

Back 18

One’s life goes best by fulfillment of all of the preferences about one’s own life

Front 19

Does Success Version of Desire Fulfillment accept or reject the experience requirement?

Back 19

No!; undetected deception can make one's life worse

Front 20

True or False?; Success Version of Desire Fulfillment restricts the range of desires that affect one's life.

Back 20

True!; E.g., child killed in avalanche does not make parent’s life go worse if news cannot be communicated to parent

Front 21

True or False?; Success Version allows that one's life can be affected by undetected satisfaction/frustration.

Back 21

True!; e.g., one makes efforts to improve lives of one’s children but, unbeknownst to you, their lives are bad

Front 22

What are Summative versions of Desire Fullfilment?

Back 22

Quality of one’s life determined by total satisfaction of all one’s desires (adjusted for intensity) over one’s life; more desire satisfaction improves quality of one’s life

Front 23

What are Global versions of Desire Fulfillment?

Back 23

Global version of Desire Fulfillment - desire fulfillment only counts towards goodness of one’s life if desire is about: (a) some part of one’s life considered as a whole or (b) one’s life as a whole

Front 24

What example does Parfit give to show the implausibility of Summative views?

Back 24

Drug Addiction.

Front 25

The idea of Bizarre Informed Desires expresses what problem?

Back 25

Some imagined examples put pressure on the idea that goodness can be adequately captured by an informed desire theory.

Some informed desires seem unreasonable or irrational

Front 26

What is an example used to get at the idea of a Bizarre Informed Desire?

Back 26

The Grass Counter – person who could make contributions to applied mathematics wants to count blades of grass

Front 27

The objection from Bizarre Informed Desires gives motivation for what such theories?

Back 27

Objective List Theories

Front 28

What do the notions of Adaptive Preferences and False Consciousness express?

Back 28

The idea that some preferences do not track peoples well-being accurately because the preferences were formed under distorting conditions.

Front 29

Objective List Theories maintain that Goodness is _______ independent.

Back 29

desire (but main include satisfaction of some of one's desires)

Front 30

Goodness can be ________ to different people.

Back 30

Indexed (different people can have different OBJECTIVE LISTS)

Front 31

What are the lists of objective goods often linked to?

Back 31

The development and exercise of distinctive rational and affective capacities

(e.g., knowledge aesthetic achievement, love, intimacy, friendship)

Front 32

Whether goodness can be acheived by a person may depend on __________ ____________

Back 32

Endorsement Constraints

Front 33

What is a Method of Ethics?

Back 33

Any rational procedure by which we determine what individual human beings `ought'---or what it is `right' for them-to do, or to seek to realise by voluntary action

Front 34

A Method of Ethics is roughly equivalent to and account of...?

Back 34

Practical Reason.

Front 35

What are the 3 competing Methods of Ethics?

Back 35

Rational Egoism

Dogmatic Intuitionism

Utilitarianism

Front 36

What is Rational Egoism?

Back 36

Maximize Individual Happiness!

Front 37

What is Dogmatic Intuitionism?

Back 37

Follow the intuitive dictates of commonsense morality and treat these dictates as normatively basic:

E.g., Justice, promissory duties, truth-telling, courage.

Front 38

What is Utilitarianism?

Back 38

Maximize overall happiness

Front 39

What is the Dualism of Practical Reason?

Back 39

Intuitionism fails: Dictates are not basic and ultimately depend on utilitarian principles

Rational Egoism and Utilitarianism are equally credible accounts of practical reason and insofar as they diverge, practical reason is indeterminate in the guidance it offers.

Front 40

What is a Theory of Goodness?

Back 40

A non-moral value in which goodness is defined in terms of utility.

** Hedonism, preference satisfaction are all theories of goodness

Front 41

What is a Criterion of Rightness?

Back 41

The moral value in which rightness id defined in terms of maximization of utility, however defined.

Front 42

Utilitarianism has what two aspects?

Back 42

A theory of Goodness and a criterion of Rightness.

Front 43

What are two kinds of measurements of utility/happiness?

Back 43

Intrapersonal and Interpersonal measurements.

Front 44

What is an intrapersonal measurement of utility?

Back 44

Comparing the utility a given person receives from something (vs. something else)

Front 45

What is an Interpersonal measurement of utility?

Back 45

Comparing the utility different persons receive from something.

Front 46

What question does the Scope of Moral Standing (utilitarianism) address?

Back 46

Q: Whose happiness matters for the purpose of utilitarian calculations?

Front 47

What does Bentham say about the scope of moral standing?

Back 47

Every one counts for one, no one for more than one

** All beings with interests -- all sentient beings -- have equal moral standing in the utilitarian calculus.

Front 48

What is Generic Consequentialism?

Back 48

The idea that consideration of consequences is relevant to making moral judgements.

Front 49

What is Technical Consequentialism?

Back 49

The idea that rightness consists in the maximization of non-moral goodness. (e.g., happiness)

** Not just relevant to the moral judgement.

Front 50

Every credible moral theory accepts __________ consequentialism.

Back 50

Generic

Front 51

___________ consequentialism is more controversial.

Back 51

Technical

Front 52

What is Direct Utilitarianism?

Back 52

The utilitarian criterion of rightness is also employed as a decision procedure

Direct utilitarians deliberately set out to maximize overall utility and they determine what course of action is right by directly engaging in utility calculations.

Front 53

What is Indirect Utilitarianism?

Back 53

The utilitarian criterion of rightness need not be employed as a decision procedure.

The criterion of rightness is still identified with overall utility maximization but in determining what is right (or how to act) the utilitarian can be guided, in most contexts, by principles that are not utilitarian/direct calculations.

Front 54

What is Act Utilitarianism?

Back 54

The utilitarian criterion of rightness is applied in the first instance to the evaluation of acts.

Rights acts are acts that maximize overall utility.

E.g.,

Front 55

What is Rule Utilitarianism?

Back 55

The utilitarian criterion of rightness is applied in the first instance to general social rules.

Rule utilitarians attempt to identify rules which, if generally obeyed, will maximize overall utility. A particular act is judged right or wrong by reference to these rules.

E.g., Truth-Telling

Front 56

What is Total View Utilitarianism?

Back 56

As moral agents, our primary moral obligation is to the promotion of valuable states of affairs as such rather than to other persons.

Our objective as moral agents is to increase the total amount of value (i.e., utility) in the world

Front 57

What is Prior Existence Utilitarianism?

Back 57

Our primary moral obligation is to other (existing persons/sentient beings).

We must give equal consideration to each person’s interests; principle of utility is an interpretation of what impartial moral consideration of existing interests requires

Front 58

What is the Utility Monster supposed to be an objection to?

Back 58

Utilitarianism

Front 59

Explain the Utility Monster objection.

Back 59

If there were an incredible efficient source at transforming resources into happiness, utilitarianism seems to motivate us to allocate all resources to this machine and ignore the plight of everyone else since the machine is capable of generating the most overall happiness.

Front 60

What is Parfit's response to the Utility Monster objection?

Back 60

He says that such a person/machine is not really imaginable and is, thus, a deep impossibility.

i.e., It does not constitute an important objection to utilitarianism.

Front 61

What is the Repugnant Conclusion an objection to?

Back 61

Total View Utilitarianism

Front 62

Explain the Repugnant Conclusion.

Back 62

If our responsibility is to states of affairs and not to persons, then it seems that we would be correct in simply creating more lives to increase overall happiness, even if those lives are barely worth living.

** Is it better to have more happiness with less average happiness per person or less overall happiness but more happiness on average?

Front 63

What is the non-identity problem?

Back 63

The idea that if we were born at a different time, then we would never have existed (i.e., we would be a different person).

One's identity as a person, in part, depends on when one was born.

Front 64

What is the 14 year-old girl problem?

Back 64

“This girl chooses to have a child. Because she is so young, she give her child a bad start in life. Though this will have bad effects throughout this child’s life, his life will, predictably be worth living. If this girl had waited for several years, she would have had a different child, to whom she would have given a better start in life.”

Should she have waited and given her child a better life?

Front 65

What is Actualism?

Back 65

The right action is action as a function of what actually maximizes utility

Front 66

What is Probabilism?

Back 66

The right action is a function of what is likely to maximize utility.

Front 67

What is the distinction between actualism and probabilism?

Back 67

There can be a difference between actions that are likely to maximize utility and actions that actually (as the world turns out) maximize

Front 68

What is non-utilitarian consequentialism?

Back 68

Goodness is not narrowly defined in terms of human welfare; may be a plurality of goods beyond human welfare that have intrinsic value and should be promoted (e.g., knowledge, aesthetic achievement and friendship)


** Objective List

Front 69

What is perfectionism?

Back 69

Locates good to be promoted in distinctive features of human nature; often associated with Aristotle's eudaimonia.

Front 70

What is utilitarian impartiality?

Back 70

The idea that we must act as strictly impartial, disinterested and benevolent spectators when performing utilitarian calculations.

** Like a scientist.

Front 71

What is negative responsibility?

Back 71

An agent is just as responsible for the things that they do as for the things they do not do (or directly bring about).

** George the chemist and Jim the botanist examples.

Front 72

What is the Integrity Objection?

Back 72

The idea that Utilitarianism can generate alienation from our ground projects and, thus, is corrosive to our integrity.

Front 73

What is Supererogation?

Back 73

An action that brings about good consequences but is not morally required (it is praiseworthy but persons cannot be morally criticized for failing to do it).


** Utilitarianism denies the possibility for these actions.

Front 74

What is the Ethic of Care?

Back 74

(A characteristically female moral perspective?) in which moral reasoning is focused on particularities and concrete facts, not abstract principles.

Morality is seen as fundamentally partial and should be focused on nurturing and sustaining an existing web of relationship.

Front 75

What is the difference voice hypothesis

Back 75

The idea that there are two distinct and largely incompatible moral voice, each associated with fundamentally different moral concepts.

One focuses on justice, the other focuses on care.

Front 76

What is the gender difference hypothesis?

Back 76

The idea that the ethic of care is characteristically female where the justice-based ethic is characteristically male

(Doubts about the empirical evidence of this claim)

Front 77

In what two ways have Feminists embraced the Ethic of Care?

Back 77

(a) As an expression of a distinctive female moral voice wrongly neglected by 'malestream' theory.

(b) Attentive both to distinctive concerns of women as nurturers and the importance of special relationships to ethics

Front 78

How have feminists rejected the Ethic of Care?

Back 78

a) By raising doubts about whether there is a fundamental contrast between justice and care

b) By raising concerns about the way an ethic of care actually functions ideologically to support patriarchy.

Front 79

What is the denigration objection?

Back 79

The argument that agents for whom personal relationships matter (at the level of everyday decision making) are generally better able to contribute to the overall aim of ulitarianism of maximizing goodness.

** Indirect utilitarianism?

Front 80

What is the demandingness objection?

Back 80

The argument that utilitarianism can be overly demanding of individuals to sacrifice their interests for the greater good.

** Most of the time this is not a problem (i.e., when everyone duties are discharged).

** resists picking up moral slack of non-compliers.

Front 81

What is the justice based objection?

Back 81

Test the implications of utilitarianism against our considered judgements about what morality requires in a range of seemingly easy cases. (E.g., Jean case)

Determine whether there is a divergence between utilitarianism and our reflective intuitions about the demands of morality in these cases.

Determine whether there is a common thread running through the seeming failures of utilitarianism in these case.

Articulate a deeper moral/philosophical diagnosis of the (apparent) failure of the utilitarian criterion of rightness.

Front 82

What is the separateness of persons objection?

Back 82

John Rawls in A Theory of Justice argues that utilitarianism does not adequately recognize the separateness of persons.

It mistakenly treats sacrifices across different persons’ lives as though they are the same as sacrifices within a single person’s life.