PHIL 333 Exam Study Guide.
Cultural relativism - answerthere is no objective truth in ethics. Right and wrong are relative to
an individual or a certain group.
Objections to cultural relativism - answer1. Difficult to discern right from wrong. Same action
is right in one culture and wrong in th...
Cultural relativism - answer✔there is no objective truth in ethics. Right and wrong are relative to
an individual or a certain group.
Objections to cultural relativism - answer✔1. Difficult to discern right from wrong. Same action
is right in one culture and wrong in the other.
2. There are certain rules that seem to be universal in all cultures but this cannot be explained
through CR.
Utilitarianism - answer✔The right actions, laws policies promote the greatest amount of net
pleasure and the least amount of net pain, where everyone's pleasures and pain receive equal
consideration.
Consequentialism - answer✔The right act is entirely determined by its consequences and the
right act promotes the most net good and the least net bad.
Hedonism - answer✔The sole intrinsic good is pleasure and the sole intrinsic bad is pain
Equal Consideration - answer✔No one's god is to be counted as more important than anyone
else's
Situational ethic - answer✔Part of the consequentialist aspect of utilitarianism. Whether an act is
right or wrong depends on the particular situation.
Justice Objection to Utilitarianism - answer✔The Utilitarian choice procedure sometimes
recommends actions that are intuitively immoral/unethical, inasmuch as the actions involve some
sort of unfairness, injustice, or violation of rights.
Promises Objection to Utilitarianism - answer✔we have an inability to predict what the long-
term consequences of actions can be therefore difficult to dicscern utility of some choices.
Experience Machine Objection to Hedonism - answer✔Invented by Robert Nozick. A machine
enables patient to experience endless pleasure. Hedonists would argue that living in the machine
is the best life. The experiment proves that pleasure is not the only good thing in life.
Objection to Hedonism - answer✔Not all pleasures are inherently good (peeping Tom)
Too demanding objection to Equal Consideration - answer✔Utilitarian does not recognize the
importance of special relationships - family and friends could not come before strangers if it
produces more net good to help strangers.
Rule Utilitarianism - answer✔The right thing to do is to follow the best rule and this will
produced the most net good for all concerned. We must follow the OPTIMIFIC RULE even if so
doing will not cause the best consequences.
Deontology - answer✔The idea that morality is doing one's moral duty (type of non-
consequentialist)
Kantian Good Will - answer✔Doing acts not for an intended purpose, but because it is the right
thing to do. Acting based on the categorical imperative and respect for morality.
Kantian ethics - answer✔1) When actions have moral worth 2) certain principles to determine
when actions are morally wrong
Categorical imperative - answer✔imperatives that apply to everyone, regardless of ultimate
desires
Hypothetical imperative - answer✔"if you are thirsty, you ought to drink"
Universal law version of the categorical imperative - answer✔"Act only on those maxims that
you can, at the same time, will as universal law"
Contradiction in thought/conception - answer✔You cannot will a maxim which is self-defeating
or self-contradictory (violates perfect duty)
Perfect duty - answer✔Duty that must never be violated
Contradiction in will - answer✔an action may contradict what a person may want in the future
(violates imperfect duty)
Imperfect duty - answer✔duty that is not consistently followed
Universal law test - answer✔1) Identify the maxim behind the action 2) universalize the maxim
3) consider whether the universalized maxim can be consistently willed
Humanity version of the categorical imperative - answer✔One must treat humanity as an end and
never as a means (do not use people!). Humanity = rational beings, end = rational being, means =
thing
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