Intro to Ethics Study Guide Essay

1. social contract theory is to give up right to have a government, animals come in the public court of opinion. Animals are involved †¦ implicit †¦ it can be inferred they contribute to human beings and killing them would interfere with the balance in the ecosystem 2. virtue ethics-aristotle would argue that if you were to kill an animal without morality would be immoral. Using too much compassion or too little. Doing the right thing because it is the right thing. 1st categorical imperative. If that maxim is able to become a universal law. A maxim would be to care for animals 3. Util- it depends on the situation who it makes happy more who is satisfied? Can you do better with your time 2. If John has a day off from work and stays home all day getting drunk, then Utilitarianism would say that it is okay for john to do that seeing that he is home alone and he is not bothering anyone. His family and friends are not aware of what he is doing and he decided to get drunk which makes his happiness the highest. Yet, it must be considered what John could have done in that period of time that could have been most beneficial to the community. The morally right thing action brings the highest net or overall happiness which John did not provide. This brings up Hedonism where the right actions only have best results that are measured so the goal should be to maximize the total measure of happiness. John could have done other things throughout that day like volunteering at a hospital or visiting his family. According to Utilitarianism, John decided to get drunk which is not following through with the Utilitarian right of action by doing something that would give the most happiness. Morality is the effort to guide one’s conduct by reason and have the best reasons for doing them. So, if John’s drinking is not backed up with the best reasons possible for doing them, then John’s decision is not morally correct according to utilitarianism. 3. 4. We are obligated to keep our promises according to all four theories. Utilitarianism: If my happiness outweighs the net happiness of the person of whom I want to break the promise with, then utilitarianism would say that it is okay to break the promise seeing that it would give me the most amount of happiness. But, if you break that promise and continue to break promises you made to your friend, then that would eventually lead to your best friend being unhappy with you and break the friendship apart unless that friend does not care about broken promises. Kantian ethics: We should keep our promises because we are to act only according to that maxim by which it will at the same time become a universal law. If we were to promise to pay someone back and never planned to pay them back for real and broke that promise, then if that was to become a universal law no one would trusts each other or believe people when they say they will owe them back. Thus, this will break friendships and leave the world with broken promises. Social contract theory: depends if the person lying is doing something for good virtue ethics: practical wisdom on which virtue to use. Knowing what virtue to use in what situation. 5. Kant thought lying was immoral because our behavior should be guided by universal laws which are moral rules that hold true in all circumstances. Kant says that lying under any circumstances is â€Å"the obliteration of one’s dignity as a human being† Even a small white law is unacceptable. His argument consisted of it being okay to lie or lying becoming popular. You should act in a way if it was to become a universal law so this universal law of lying would lead to everyone lying and the purpose would be self-defeating, no one would believe each other, and no one would pay attention to what you say. Essentially, Kant believes that we should only do the actions that conform to rules that we would adopt universally. 7.virtue is a state of character that lies between by doing a virtuous act you will become virtuous because it will become a habit coward-courage 8. If known murder comes to your home searching your friend, A virtue theorist would tell the truth. Although he has virtues like loyalty and honesty which he want to keep true, I would have to choose between one or the other. Virtues are desired states of character that are also excellence that brings into good conditions therefore people strive to have these virtues. The friend must choose to whether tell the truth to the murderer which is a virtue of having honesty or tell a lie to the murderer to help his friend which is a virtue of loyalty to their friend. Although both virtues are important and one would not want to participate in the murder of their friend, a virtue theorist would essentially tell the murderer the truth since ——–lying is treating a person as mere means because you are using them to lie instead of using them as ends——virtue is a state of character concerned with choice and so lying in a mean would be determined by the rational principle which can only be determined by a man of practical wisdom.—-virtue looks for what is intermediate.