Philosophers
Associated with Deontology
Immanuel Kant
The reasons given in an argument that provide support for the argument's conclusion.
Premises
The doctrine that an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct.
Utilitarianism
Claims our ideas about ethics rest upon some sort of intuitive knowledge of ethical truths.
Intuitionism
Pleasure Minus Pain, Intensity, Fruitfulness, and Likelihood are all ways of calculating ______.
Utilitarianism
Associated with Natural Law
Thomas Aquinas
Examines the nature of ethics and the meaning of terms and judgments.
Metaethics
A moral theory emphasizing the importance of relationships, empathy, and care in ethical decision-making. It contrasts with more traditional ethical frameworks like utilitarianism and deontology, which often focus on abstract principles, rules, or outcomes.
Care Ethics
Offers an explanation of moral knowledge that is subjective, with moral judgments resting upon subjective experience
Emotivism
This hypothetical situation is used to examine utilitarian ethics.
The Trolley Problem
Associated with Virtue Ethics
Aristotle
The idea that there are (or ought to be) universal norms that unite people across the globe
Cosmopolitan
Rather than asking what we ought to do, _________ asks how we ought to be.
Virtue Ethics
The belief that certain things, especially moral truths, exist independently of human knowledge or perception of them.
Objectivism
Utilitarian theory that focuses on postulating general rules that will tend to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number
Rule Utilitarianism
Associated with Feminism
Mary Wollstonecraft
Means “Based in this world or this age.”
Secular Ethics
The doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.
Relativism
The claim that value judgments merely express subjective opinion.
Subjectivism
Focuses solely on the consequences of specific individual acts.
Act Ultilarianism
The period during which many of the philosophers we’ve discussed were active, such as Locke, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and others
The Enlightenment Period
Arguments that attempt to justify God as all-powerful and all-knowing, despite the problem of evil
Theodicies
The view that certain things are good for us to do because this is what God wants.
Divine Command Theory
Examines what is good or bad, right or wrong, what we ought to do, etc.
Normative Ethics
The open, nonviolent refusal to obey an unjust law, with the intent of accepting the penalty and arousing the conscience of the community as a whole.
Civil Disobedience