CHAPTER 1 - FOREMAN (pp. 28-48)
●Moral event virtue ethics- person, act, results (results-consequentialism deontology, acts- , person- )
●Egoism Utilitarianism-ultimate consequences for me; -ultimate consequences for everyone
●Psychological egoism-all our actions are ultimately done out of self-interest, no choice, ultimately
for self
●Altruistic-action done completely for another person (impossible ^); Holes: may do bc of
temptation/ unintentional byproduct, and says it's to act otherwise (assertion is not animpossible
argument--unprovable)
●Ethical egoism-claims we ought to act in a manner that ultimately serves our best interest
(possible to serve others but shouldn’t); Holes: all benefit from serving selves (conflict? amoral?), if
it’s best for everyone--then this is really utilitarianism, death of Christ?
●Utilitarianism- consequentialist theory, right thing is providing greatest amount of happiness to
greatest # (utility principle); Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill; most popular--America
●Ideas for Util.: 1) strive to create greatest balance of good over evil ( ), 2)proportionalism
good=happiness, evil=pain, 3) happiness should be spread as widely and as equally as possible
(rare for everyone to be happy)
●Act utilitarianism-specific situation (Bentham); Rule utilitarianism-rules can guide one in each
situation (Mill)
●Holes in Util.: measure happiness?--incommensurable, Bentham--unit called hedon, happiness as
goal of morality?, persons, morals, etc. only have value if they produce some social utility, the
minority always suffers for the majority, how can we really know what the consequences of our
actions will be?
●Deontology- rightness or wrongness of an act (ethical absolutes); morality is a duty/obligation
●Prima facie-“at face value”; moral obli. that hold in normal cases unless they conflict with stronger
obli.(***)
●Absolutism- absolute ethics in normal cases with no conflicts
●1)Divine Command Theory-our ethical duties are grounded in the commands of God (verbal divine
revel.)
●Holes: which is the right word of God? (islam, etc.), what about those who don’t have access?,
reduces to voluntarism-morality is based on the will of God, good simply bc God wills it so (could
have willed abuse, etc.)
●Essentialism- morality is based on the nature of God (God is not free but is limited by His nature)
●2)Natural Law Theory-all men have a built-in capacity in their human nature to distinguish right
and wrong (Aristotle and Aquinas); everything has a nature;teleological view of creation-designed
creation to function a certain way with rational laws; humans made with free will, ability to reason;
this is based on human nature
●Critiques: if evol. is true, nothing has purpose/way to function, universal nature (?), trying to put
ought from is
●3) Kantian Deontology-(Immanuel Kant) do good out of duty; to do “the good will”: to do right for no
other reason than because it is right; based on motive (not good if done for wrong reasons);
