PHIQUESTIONS attachement is below

MORAL THEORIES

FOCUS

Categ

HUMAN-CENTERED ETHICS

NATURE-CENTERED ETHICS

Type

DOING

Interest: the right actions/the right thing to do

BEING

the kind of person the moral agent ought to be

DOING (Shapes who one is: Being)

Interest: the right action(s)/the right thing to do

Name

Utilitarianism

Future of

Community

Rights-Based Ethics

Individuals’ Rights

Deontology

Duties of Individuals

Virtue Ethics

Character

Care Ethics

Relationships

Narrative Ethics

Past History & Future Plans

Sentientist Ethics

Consciousness

Biocentric Ethics

Life

Ecocentric

Ethics

Land

[Planet]

MORAL DECSION-MAKING

Basis

Consequences

of

the action.

Membership-Based Entitlement

Knowledge

of

One’s duty

Moral Excellence

Responsiveness to fellow human beings’ needs

Unfolding of life

within

a culture

Experience of a range of emotions: pleasure, suffering

Reverence

for

Life

Evolutionary source

of all life

Principle

An act is morally right if it produces greatest pleasure for greatest number

An act is morally right if it honors the rights of an individual

An act is morally right if it is carried out out of sense of duty

An act is morally right if done out of moral excellence

An act is morally right if carried out primarily to meet the needs of someone

The moral rightness of an can be determined only in light of life story +future plans

Every effort should be made to minimize harm and allow “green areas” where animals can flourish

Respect for the intrinsic worth of all living things, including plants + no sentient animals

Respect for the health of biotic pyramids [species in their environment], and for their capacities for self-renewal

ASSESSMENT

Strengths

*Has comprehensive procedure for calculating what is right

*Values each person’s good equally

*Value of the Individual is respected

*Compatibility with Western society ‘s political theory

*Recognition of complexity of moral situations

*Recognition of nature of the act

*Respect of the value of the individual

*Person-centeredness

*Flexibility based on ability to recognize differences among persons and circumstances

*Person-centeredness

*Emphasis on communal + emotional nature of human lives

*Person-centeredness

*Emphasis on consistency and wholeness of a person’s moral life

*Focus on consciousness allows for moral concern to be extended to all living beings, including plants

*Focus on the primacy human life of life entails respect for the dignity and autonomy of human beings

*Focus on the land raises ecological awareness, results in the need to care about and protect the environment

Weaknesses

*Can’t determine consequences with certainty.

*Sacrifices individual goods + rights for the sake of the community

*Can’t determine individuals’ rights with certainty

*Sacrifices the good of community for individual rights

*Sometimes ignores consequences.

*Sacrifices the good of community for individual duties

*Inability to explain how to move from a virtue to the right action

*Can’t be universally applied due to variability of definitions of virtue from person/culture to person/culture

*Inability to explain how to move from caring to the right action

*Can’t be universally applied due to variability of definitions of virtue from person/culture to person/culture

*Inability to explain how to move from a narrative to the right action

*Can’t be universally applied due to uniqueness of every narrative

*Doesn’t take into account differences among living beings.

Doesn’t acknowledge food need for humans vs. animals and for the latter over plants…

*Not sensitive enough to the natural balancing act: Ex. overpopulation of some animals may call for herd management

*Is likely to bring about conflict and divide people into two for-and-against-ecology camps