Show:
The Ethical Life & Climate Change
Happiness & Ethics
Ayn Rand
Virtue & Wu-wei
Singer & Miscellaneous
100

These are some indications that man-made global climate change is taking place.

What is the overwhelming majority of relevant scientists have come to this conclusion, and the ~unprecedented~ level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the sea level rise, melting of global ice, increase in temperatures, stronger storms, etc.

100

This is the one thinker we covered in this (longer) lecture who did not think that happiness should be the source of ethics--we needed to be worthy of happiness first.

Who is Kant?

100
For this theory, we are selfish by nature.
What is psychological egoism.
100

According to Confucius, if we were to use one word to guide us through life, it would be reciprocity, as it grabs a hold of this now famous principle that we find in nearly every religious tradition and many philosophical traditions.

What is the golden rule?

100

If I need $50,000 in order to sustain myself and my family, and yet I make $80,000, how much should I give away to charity according to the Singer Solution?

What is $30,000?

200
Unlike descriptive ethics, this type of ethics is the more philosophical ethics, being concerned more with the values we ~ought~ to have.
What is normative or prescriptive ethics?
200

Human-heartedness, compassion, benevolence, humanity, love for mankind, and many other words and phrases try to wrap around this central Confucian virtue.

What is Ren?

200
For Rand, we have to say this before we say "I love you."
What is "I"?
200

This virtue is in between the vices of cowardice and foolhardiness.

What is courage?

200

This is what Bob's Bugatti analogy was meant to convey.

What is ...leading to we all fail to pull the switch every day by spending money that could go to dying children (due to poverty) on luxury items?

300

This is a good that is undertaken for the sake of another (usually superior) good.

What is an instrumental/external good?

300
This is what Mill means when he says that a dissatisfied Socrates is better than a satisfied fool.
What is seeking better things (even if they bring less pleasure) bring a better quality of pleasure that is more worthwhile than seeking more base things--in this case true wisdom vs embracing and protecting ignorance?
300
For Rand, this virtue corresponds with the result of achievement of values (self-esteem).
What is pride?
300

Although this virtue seems a little less important due to its emphasis on merely practicing ritual for ritual sake, it is essential to also see this virtue as a necessary means toward cultivation of other virtues, including the most fundamental virtue (ren), and as a means of both effectiveness in social circumstances and even transformation.

What is li?

300
With Eudaimonia, it isn't the circumstances that we are surrounded with (both internal and external) that makes the 'happier' life, but this...
What is what we do with those circumstances?
400
In the Ring of Gyges selection of Plato's Republic, Glaucon argues this about the true nature of the just person.
What is that we are only just because we can't get away with not being just, and even agreement to be just for the sake of society is so that we don't suffer injustice. For Glaucon, we don't value justice or doing good for its own sake.
400

If our self-actualization in Eudaimonia is enough for the ethical life, we would say that Eudaimonia is _______ for the ethical life.

What is sufficient?

400

This is essentially Rand's take on charity.

What is that it is not an important focus for ethics, that altruistic charity and generosity are evil, that we ought to consider the cause of poverty, never give the unearned, etc...?

400

This term grabs our notion of 'flow' quite well, although it must always be considered in the ethical realm, and usually in a larger social context. Here we are spontaneously acting appropriately, and seemingly effortlessly.

What is the wu-wei?

400

ExxonMobil and several other powerful corporations affecting our government in the last few decades are now being sued for doing this.

What is misleading us and merchandizing doubt about the reality of anthropogenic climate change?

500
These are examples of (1) something unethical but still legal, and (2) something illegal but (possibly) ethical.
What is ...
500
These are two major distinctions between Eudaimonia and Hedonism.
What is ...[Eudaimonia: longer-term, more active, based on virtue, more tied to human nature. Hedonism: shorter-term, can be more tied to results and less active, based on pleasure...]
500
This is why Rand's theory is ~very~ different from psychological egoism.
What is...[emphasis not only on ~ought~, but the belief that most people are not truly selfish.]
500

Here are two similarities and two differences between virtues and complex skills.

Similarities: need practice for excellence, we are disposed to different degrees for each, desire to aspire in both, need to learn for both, mastery leads to a joyful "being in the zone" for both, etc.

Differences: complex skills not always good, virtues better define our characters, virtues always require larger moral context, we are better at faking virtues than skills, etc.

500

This is why it is hard to defend that pleasure is either necessary or sufficient for the ethical life.

Necessary: an unhappy/miserable person could still live the ethical life.

Sufficient: A person can have plenty of pleasure in an unethical life.