ethical theories

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Natural Moral Law

  • created by Thomas Aquinas
  • focused on the principle of do good and avoid evil
  • if you did good and avoided evil you would achieve the Sunnum Bonum which is to be in fellowship/union with God
  • Aquinas created 5 primary precepts to help people do good and avoid evil, they were
  • to preserve life, to live in an ordered society, to reproduce, to worship God, to educate and learn

you could follow these via secondary precepts such as; 

  • having children - this fits with the primary precept to reproduce to not commit suicide - this fits with to preserve life, to pray - to worship God, to not murder - to live in an ordered society

These rules are absolutist this means that they always hold (they should always be followed)

Aquinas also distinguished between real and apparent goods:

Real goods are ones that are actually good and moral, Apparent goods are ones that we see to be good but actually they are not

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Situation Ethics

  • created by Joseph Fletcher as an updated Christian moral ethic
  • created at the time of the contraceptive pill
  • 1960's
  • the Church's were facing serious decline as the Bible was seen as outdated and irrelavant

The Boss Principle - the greatest amount of love for the greatest number

When Fletcher says love he means agape love - self sacrifical love

There are four working principles to Situation Ethics: pragmatism, practicalism, relativism, personalism

There are also 6 principles:

  • love is the only norm
  • loving is not liking
  • love is the only end
  • love decides there and then
  • love is instrically good
  • love are justice and the same for love is justice distrbuted
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Utilitarianism

the principle of utility - the greatest amount of good for the greatest number

it is telelogical - focuses on the outcomes

It is split into two categories:

ACT AND RULE UTILITARIANISM

Act - created by John Stuart Mill, the idea that rules should be broken to fit the principle of utility, takes into account all situations are different

Mill distingushed between higher and lower pleasures; higher pleasures being ones that enrich your mind such as reading Plato's work and lower pleasures such as watching Friends on TV

Rule - created by Bentham

strong rule - always stick to rules they are absolutist

Weak rule - bit like act util, they go against rules if better for others, it becomes subjective

Bentham had a Hedonic Calculus that told us pain from pleasure

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Kantian Ethics

  • created by Immanuel Kant
  • thought knowledge was known through reason - a priori

The Categorical Imperative

The cat imp. commands us to exersice our will in a certain way irrespective of any end, telling the truth is morally right so we must do it

Kant created 3 principles in the cat imp.

The formula of the universal law of nature

  • if it cannot be universalised dont do it
  • The formula of the end in itself
  • you can't use other people as all humans are capable of free will
  • it has no regard for intrinstic quality of humans involved and their freedom  
  • the formula of the kingdom of ends:
  • the kingdom of ends is the world where we must imagine that we are searching for universal laws
  • an imagined future when everyone acts in accordance to moral rules
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