EAS 203 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Unit, Ethics, Utilitarianism
12 Oct 2018
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EAS 203
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
UNIT 1 LECTURES
Jan 16 Lecture
- what is moral philosophy?
o Aristotle- humans need to be in a society,
- Ethical Theories
o Virtue ethics- Aristotle
§ Who you were as a person making a decision to do something
o Deontological (duty) ethics- kant
o Rights ethics- kant and locke
o Utilitarianism- jerry bentham, john stuart mill and harriet taylor mill
§ Long run
o What is the theory?
§ Kant- your will, what you want to happen, that you want the right thing to
happen is what matters, less concerned about actual outcome, would not
hold you responsible for any unintended consequences
o What is the historical context?
§ Kant- references Aristotle
o How does it apply to engineering and society today?
§ Consequences, putting moral worth on a decision, if a machine makes that
decision, how does it affect the moral worth
§ Privacy, individual rights, rights to safety and your life
- Plato-
o how do we know what we know?
o True understanding of the universe can’t be reached by humans
o True knowledge is only accessible through the intellect, not the senses
o There’s this other abstract realm- accessible only through our intellect, not our
senses… this place where true beings exist
o Rationalism- we can’t trust out senses, our senses are secondary (allegory of the
cave)
- Aristotle- more practical
o Evidence based reasoning rather than rational (just thinking about stuff)
o Observation, the physical world at hand
o Reaching ultimate potential, fulfillment
o What is the purpose/end/goal of the human life? What is human nature, what is
humanity/
§ Humans unique because of their ability to reason and think, therefore that
is their purpose
§ But not all humans have the certain life circumstances that allows people
to achieve “Eudaimonia,” to live a flourishing life
o Nicomachean Ethics
§ Eudaimonia- happiness, fulfillment, flourishing life
§ What is a flourishing life? (Book 1 Ch. 5)
• Being recognized isn’t true? Bc even if you win in Olympics, there
might be someone better than you that just didn’t participate
§ Function argument (Book 1 Ch 7
• To be a good human is to reason well
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• Can’t statically be a good/bad person, moral worth determined by
actions, happiness is determined over the course of your life
- Virtue Ethics
o Evaluates personal character in terms of virtues and vices, rather than the
consequences of the action
o Motivations? Strengths? Weaknesses?
- Enlightenment
o Kant
§ theory based on rationality
§ deontological/duty ethics and rights ethics
§ what actions have moral worth?
• Distinguish between intention and consequences
• Introduces an ethics based on duty, obligation and rules
§ Moral laws and universal principles based on reason
• How are they experienced by humans?
§ Categorical imperative
• Always act according to the maxim whose universality as a law
you can at the same time will
• ^You shouldn’t act in a way that you would not want your
behavior to be a law. the way you act should be interchangeable
with what the right thing to do is, and what we expect of others.
• Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own
person or in any other person, always, at the same time as an end,
never merely as a means.
• ^You should be treating other people not as means, a way to get
what you want, but an end, that other people have their own
dignity and value.
• Diff between value and dignity- value, can be bought sold owned
etc… while dignity, humans need to be respected… duty and rights
ethics
• Act that we may think of ourselves as a member in the universal
realm of ends (“universal kingdom of ends”).
• ^ no one is above the law, no one is excluded from the law.
§ Human ability to reason what the right thing to do.. your intentions to do
good are most important
§ Morality possible with humanity bc of our ability to reason.
§ Adhering to good could cause consequences though.. but kant doesn’t care
about this.
§ Deontological ethics
• Motivated out of an obligation or a duty to follow one’s own
reason in making moral judgements
• Concerned with the motivation for the act itself, rather than the
consequences of the act
• Strengths
• Weaknesses-
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