Philippa Foot

Philippa Foot in her text “Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives” argues against the claim that moral judgments cannot be hypothetical imperatives, first presented by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. As found in her introduction on page 68-69 of the textbook, her argument is that moral judgments are categorical rather than hypothetical. But before one can explain her argument one must define and explain what hypothetical and categorical imperatives are. Kant himself wrote all…

As a society we depend on the belief and faith in God to keep us going. Many forms of religion pray on this and the idea that God is a higher being able to point humanity in the right direction because no ordinary human can set the authority over ourselves. We have to have someone who knows all right from wrong and is able to do such mighty things without his rules having to be questioned or argued against. We have depended so much on this idea that it has become nearly impossible, in the eyes…

Judith Jarvis Thomson wrote the article Turning the Trolley in order to refute Philippa Foot’s principle about killing and letting die. In Foot’s point of view, there are two duties, one of which is negative duty of noninterference, and the other duty is positive duty of goods and services. According to Foot, when there is a conflict between two duties, the negative duty of noninterference can overrule the positive duty of goods and services. In her example, letting five people die is…

In Thomson’s article titled The Trolley Problem, the author delves into the concept of what is morally permissible by introducing an interesting problem brought initially to life by Philippa Foot, where the reader is compelled to choose between two options. Imagining being the driver of a trolley, with broken brakes and a steep road, the reader must decide whether to save 5 people on the track or turn the trolley and kill one person on the other side. According to Thomson, it is morally…

James Rachel’s argues against The Difference Thesis he says that the issue of active and passive euthanasia is not a morally relevant problem: there is no moral difference between killing and letting die (863-864). He believes that killing is not always worse than letting die. Rachel’s argument has exceptional impact on one’s ideas. He uses an example of two men Smith and Jones. Smith will inherit a large sum of money if something fatal were to happen to his 6 year .old cousin. Smith plots to…

This essay will argue in favour of the view presented by Steven M. Cahn that, while society may not approve of immoral action (with good reason) this is far from sufficient to conclude that anyone who performs an immoral action for the sake of happiness cannot be truly happy. The key example Cahn uses is Judah Rosenthal (a character appropriated from a Woody Allen film) to explain his argument that the happy life need not be identical with the “morally-good” or “virtuous” life (Cahn & Vitrano,…

1) The difference between psychological egoism and ethical egoism involves the actions behind each. The simple fact is that they both have the same motive which is to act in favor of oneself (self-interest), they just go about this in a different way. In psychological egoism even when men are acting in ways apparently calculated to benefit others, they are actually motivated by the belief that acting in a certain manner is to their own advantage. If they did not believe this they would not be…

like, “Compassion, Technology and World Peace” Andre Averbug brings to attention the “trolley problem” in ethics. Embedded in the article, the author places a Wikipedia link for the readers to further understand the trolley problem (coined by Philippa Foot in 1967).The premise of the trolley problem is that there are two tracks. On the first track there is a train headed towards a group of five people and on the second is one person. Whoever is being asked the question must decide whether or not…

I will argue that my personal moral system derives important elements from the moral theories of Kant on the highest good, and Foot on virtue. I will illustrate my argument with the situation of giving money to a homeless man. First the situation must be explained. I am walking in Chicago, and there is a homeless man on the street. As I get close to him he asks me for some money. Now there are two possible options for how I could respond. I could stop and give him some money, or I could lie…

Neuroscience is a very informative class and provides a good understanding for advanced courses. It is revealing to note how the cerebral cortex functions in terms of human consciousness, language, and the ability to imagine, reason and think is what makes human beings unique. Furthermore, the four sections of the cerebral cortex called temporal lobe, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and occipital lobe have such distinct functions such as auditory perception and reasoning. For instance, the…