Ethics

== What's the deal here? ==
The end game of all philosophical discussion around ethics or morality (the terms seem to have very little distinction and are used by some philosophers interchangeably) is to find a moral framework that gives a definitive 'right' and 'wrong' way of acting, whether you then actually follow it is up to you... 
We will be looking at three attempts at making such a framework and then finally at the importance of ethical language itself. Overall, we are interested in three levels of ethical discussion, Meta-ethics, Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics.
Also, rather usefully, Routledge has collected all their powerpoints and handouts for the topic in one place: http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138793934/ethics.php
== 1.1 Ethical Theories: How do we decide what it is morally right to do? ==
=== 1.1.1 Utilitarianism ===
* What is meant by 'pleasure', including Mill's higher and lower pleasures
* How this might be calculated (Bentham's calculus)
* forms of utilitarianism: Act, Rule and Preference
==== Issues ====
* Individual liberty/rights
* problems with calculation
* The possible values of certain motives (does it matter if you meant to do good?) and the character of the person doing the action
* The possible moral status of our relations with others (is it important to value our family/friends more/less?)
=== 1.1.2 Kantian deontological ethics ===
* The categorical and hypothetical imperatives
* First and Second formulations of the categorical imperatives
==== Issues ====
* The feeling (intuition) that consequences are of moral value
* Problems with the application of the principal
* The possible values of certain motives (e.g. the desire to do good) and commitments (those we have to family and friends)
* Clashing/competing duties
=== 1.1.3 Aristotle's Virtue Ethics ===
* 'The good': pleasure; the function argument and eudaemonia
* The role of education and/habituation in developing a moral character
* voluntary and involuntary actions and moral responsibility
* Doctrine of the mean and Aristotle's account of vices and virtues.
==== Issues ====
* can it actually give clear guidance about how to act?
* clashing/competing virtues
* the possibility of circularity involved in defining virtuous acts and virtuous people in terms of each other
=== We need to be able to apply these issues: ===
# Crime and Punishment
# War
# Simulated Killing
# The Treatment of Animals
# Deception and the telling of lies 
== 1.2 Ethical Language: What is the status of ethical language? ==
=== 1.2.1 Cognitivism ===
* Moral realism: ethical language makes claims about mind-independent reality that are true
# Ethical naturalism (e.g. utilitarianism)
# Ethical non-naturalism (e.g. intuitionism)
* Error Theory: ethical language makes claims about mind-independent reality that are false (e.g. Makie's argument from queerness).
=== 1.2.2 Non-Cognitivism ===
* Emotivism
* Perscriptivism
Category:Ethics
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