Give an account of the ethical arguments in support of suicide.
Transfer-Encoding: chunked Give an account of the ethical arguments in support of suicide. [35] In a broad sense suicide can be defined as, “the act of intentionally ending your life.” However, there are many different types of suicide. Durkheim identified four kinds: egoistic suicide, which is the result of feeling one’s life is meaningless; altruistic suicide, the act of giving one’s life for the greater good; anomic suicide, the result of a major social change that disrupts a person’s sense of order; and fatalistic suicide, the results of excessive regulation, when one’s future is pitilessly blocked by oppressive discipline, such as in a prison or dictatorship. When considering arguments in support of suicide, a good place to start is the sovereignty of the individual. John Stuart Mill commented, “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” Suicide is an issue of personal autonomy. Personal autonomy is the capacity to decide for oneself and pursue a course of action in one's life, often regardless of any particular moral content. Suicide is the ultimate expression of autonomy, as argued by Seneca: “the one act where the individual can decisively exercise his autonomy.” It should be up to the individual to decide when they wish to die, and it should not be dictated by anyone else. Seneca was a Stoic. The Stoics
Give an account of the main characteristics of Utilitarian theory.
Transfer-Encoding: chunked Give an account of the main characteristics of Utilitarian theory. [35] Utilitarianism is an ethical theory based upon the utility principle: the moral decision is the decision that brings, “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” It is both teleological and consequentialist. Theories that are interested in ends are teleological, meaning the end does justify the means. You decide the rightness of an action by the end it produces. Stealing or lying is right if it leads to a better situation afterwards – the lie that saves a life; the theft that prevents a person from starving. Consequentialism means judging the rightness or wrongness of actions is based on our assessment of the consequences of our actions. This means we can only judge whether we have done good or bad after the event has taken place. In examining utilitarianism, a good place to start is the views of Bentham. The English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham first formalised the ‘theory of utility’. Bentham argued that good equals the greatest amount of pleasure for the least amount of pain. Bentham’s form of utilitarianism is referred to as Act Utilitarianism. Each individual action is judged good (or bad) purely on the maximisation (or minimisation) of pleasure over pain. This is a quantitive theory as Bentham’s primary concern was with the amount of pleasure
Evaluate the role of love in situation ethics
‘Evaluate the role of love in situation ethics’ Situation ethics is a teleological, relative ethical theory which is based on love.The theory uses motive and states that any rules can be bended if love is best served. Situation ethics is most commonly associated with philosopher such as Joseph Fletcher and JAT Robinson who developed it in the 1960s. A feature of situation ethics is agape which is a Greek term which means 'selfless love'. Fletcher stated that the rule of his theory was that agape love is essential and should be applied to every situation. He used the example of Jesus' quote in the New Testament which was "love thy neighbour" expressing that everyone should consider agape love before making decisions. Fletcher says that any law can be bended in order to make the most loving action. Fletcher uses the term ‘best interest’ which relates into doing whatever will have the best outcome in any situation. This term also links into Singers theory of Utilitarianism which is preference utilitarianism. Both philosophers are looking for the best interests of everybody and not harming anyone. Another feature of situation ethics are the six working principles, one of them is that love is always good, a quote from Fletcher "nothing itself in or itself except love" this quote shows that love is harmless and if everyone considers love for one another there is no harm
Evaluate the claim that Kantian ethics is useful in decision making
Evaluate the claim that Kantian ethics is useful in decision making- Kantian ethics=deontological (acts are intrinsically right or wrong) & absolutist (fixed universal standard of morality) theory used for laws day to day Helpful method; takes the actions into account to judge if an act is right or wrong rather than just consequences Kantian ethics stems from Immanuel Kant; opposed by utilitarian’s such as John Stewart Mill, Peter Singer Here I argue about the deontologist viewpoint of this theory, the idea of good will, and the universal law principle. Kant says Kantian ethics a deontologist theory which means that acts are intrinsically wrong or right so it doesn’t focus on the consequences. Good; consequences my not have to be thought of when judging acts but focus on what should be done if it’s morally right or wrong (just based off the actions). Deontology is helpful; if not people are always going to have to consider multiple consequences; time-consuming, vague/ unreliable. E.g. torture; information may not be useful; it’s unknown BUT torture is intrinsically wrong itself so Kant would say no torture. However, in a utilitarian viewpoint it is teleological viewpoint meaning unlike Kantian ethics it is based on consequences which make an act right or wrong, this is followed through by John Mill and Peter Singer. This can be a better approach as an act
Examine what is meant by situation ethics
Situation Ethics Examine what is meant by situation ethics (14) "Christianity has traditionally been dominated by natural law thinking and Situation Ethics arose out of this background" (The Puzzle of Ethics, by Peter Vardy and Paul Grosch, page 123). In the 1966 an Anglican theologian, Joseph Fletcher published a book called "Situation Ethics" in which he rejected previous deontological ethical systems. It would be wrong to believe that Fletcher founded the idea of Situation Ethics because, as I have already stated, Situation ethics has its foundations in the natural law thinking of the Christian Church. Fletcher claimed there were three possible approaches to ethics. There was the deontological approach where you have a set of rules that may never be broken, no matter what the circumstances. Fletcher believed this inflexible approach created a poor ethical system because it put the law first and made the law the most important thing. The Ten Commandments is a good example of this. Take "thou shalt not steal", is it right to steal a gun from a man who intends to use it to murder his wife? If you believe that the law is intrinsically good and should be put first then you would not steal the gun. This example illustrates the problem with the deontological approach, because in these circumstances it would be ethically good to not steal the gun and allow the man to murder
Evil and Suffering
What is meant by the problem of evil and suffering? [8] The problem of evil and suffering is perhaps the greatest of all challenges to religious belief. It is the difficulty of reconciling the existence of wickedness in the world with the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. It is best explained in the inconsistent triad; a vertex dating from Epicurus and Augustine that acknowledges the main problem believers face; how can there be a deity that is all good, powerful and knowing if evil exists, as the problem of evil itself is a contradiction within the idea of a deity. The problem of evil is an extensive problem. Whether malum culpae; moral evils we inflict upon one another (murder), or malum poenae; evil caused by natural occurrences (earthquakes) it is the direct cause of the suffering we endure each day. Different religious perspectives require different answers; the 'problem of evil', which in itself has numerous debatable aspects, is therefore interpreted in different ways by atheists, agnostics and theists. To theists particularly, the existence of evil in our world poses more than a merely philosophical or apologetic problem; it creates a very personal religious one, as although our painful experience may not challenge our belief that God exists, what may be at risk is our confidence in a God we can freely worship and love, and in whose love
Explain Kant's categorical imperative.
Transfer-Encoding: chunked Explain Kant’s categorical imperative (25 marks). Kant is an 18th century German philosopher who wrote the book Groundwork for metaphysics. The book deals with his theory that morality is a priori synthetic (a priori is a statement that is knowable without reference to any experience and synthetic means having truth or falsity can be tested using experience or the senses) and that moral decisions should be taken with a universal view to one’s duty to mankind as a whole. He laid out his ideas about the categorical imperative in this book. An imperative is a statement of what should be done. The philosopher Hume said that you can’t get a ‘should’ statement out of an ‘if’ statement. This means that experience can only give us hypothetical imperatives (not moral commands to the will – they are ‘if’ statements and do not apply to everyone and you only need obey them if you want to achieve a certain goal, for example, ‘if’ you want to be healthy then you should exercise and eat a balanced diet). A categorical imperative is a ‘should’ statement, but it is not based on experience, and doesn’t rely on a particular outcome. According to Kant, categorical imperatives apply to everyone because they are based on an objective a priori law of reason (an objective law is something that is factually true). The categorical
Describe the main strengths and weaknesses of Utilitarianism
Describe the main strengths and weaknesses of Utilitarianism Strengths * Utilitarianism is simple. It doesn't have a lot of complex rules, but instead the individual can decide would be the 'best', by how it affects others. * It is flexible: no law or principle is unchallengeable. * It allows for circumstance, so you can decide what is the best thing to do given the current circumstance. * It ties in with the Christian ethic of unconditional love, as preached by Jesus. * If someone believes that both lying and breaking promises are acts that are intrinsically wrong, utilitarianism provides a principled way in which they can choose which moral rule to break if forced to make a choice between them. * The emphasis on impartiality, unselfishness and altruism is to be commended. * There is no need to consider precedents as absolute - just because one action worked for someone does not mean that it must be enforced again, when it may not work for someone else. * It is also attractive to secular thinkers, because it makes no grand claims to the supernatural or metaphysical. It appeals to tangible results - the consequences of an action will be perceived. Weaknesses * What do we mean by happiness? What makes us happy? It is hard to define happiness as it varies with person to person. * Should happiness always be pursued? What if we can only be happy if we achieve it in
Capital Punishment
'Capital Punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime. Crime is known as a capital offence, or capital crimes.'1 Capital Punishment has been a worldwide issue, and has been elaborated since the Christian faith was introduced into the world, although the Christian faith was introduced when capital punishment was an accepted feature of the legal system, as represented when Jesus and a penitent thief were on the crosses..."We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong".2It has and still being debated among a variety of countries and religions. Although only in recent times has capital punishment been questioned. The feature has still been retained by a few western European countries, or those of Anglo-Saxon origin in other parts of the world. 104 countries have formally abolished the feature from their legal system but some countries still retain the feature, but is only used under specific circumstances and capital offences, such as treason. In the USA the practices varies among different states. Capital Punishment was partially abolished in the UK by 1965; at this time only major felonies passed the judgement of using capital punishment such as treason, piracy with violence and arson remained as capital crimes. By 1999 the act of Capital Punishment had
To what extent should our emotions be considered an important aspect of our ethical and aesthetic judgments?
Sebastian Symonowicz To what extent should our emotions be considered an important aspect of our ethical and aesthetic judgments? Emotions are one of the most significant factors that affect our life. They accompany us most of the time; sometimes we don't realize that, but they have a giant influence on our life. Occasionally this influence is dreadful, especially in formation of aesthetical and ethical judgements. That's is why men always wanted to define the extend of its use as an aspect of our ethical and aesthetic judgements. Aesthetic issues have been discussed since classical times, but they would not then have been so described. 'Aesthetics', deriving from the Greek word aesthesis ('perception'), was coined by the German philosopher, Alexander Baumgarten, in the middle of the eighteenth century. By it, he meant 'the science of sensory knowledge', though the term soon began to be confined to a particular area of such knowledge and understood as 'the science of sensory beauty', the examination of taste. Aesthetics judgements have always been considered a matter of personal taste and therefore subjective. Attempts to look at aesthetics objectively go back to the ancient Egyptians who devised precise mathematical systems for proportioning their structures and art. More refined systems were cultivated by the classical Greeks and Romans and later revived by