Friday, December 9, 2011

Fundamentals of Ethics: Introduction

Choose one of the discussion questions at the end of the introduction (on page 17) and develop a response in a short paragraph.

18 comments:

  1. The three main areas of moral philosophy are value theory, normative ethics, and metaethics. Value theory is about how we pass through life smoothly and what we should do to understand the values of life. Normative ethics is knowing what our moral duties are in life and how we should act according to what is right and wrong. Metaethics is knowing or asking what is right and wrong in life and knowing what is good and bad.

    Answering a question regarding one of these three areas of ethics effects the conclusions of questions from the other two areas. Each of these areas are linked to each other in a few ways. If you answer a question about one area, you are also touching on information about the other two areas as well. Metaethics and normative ethics are links between the moral facts (from metaethics) and obligations or duties (from normative ethics). Similarly, the value theory is linked to normative ethics with whatever we view as good (value theory) would determine our obligations (normative ethics). So, if you put it that way, there is a cycle that links one area to the other two continuously.

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  2. The three main areas of moral philososphy are the Value Theory, Normative Ethics, and Metaethics. The Value Theory is how people get through life and what life is. Normative Ethics is what are moral duties are and who are role models should be. Metaethics is moral knowledge and moral claims.
    If a person tries to answer a question with the Value theory area then it would get the person thinking about what are our moral duties. The moral duties are a code that people live by, in which they have laws. Moral duties are things that are suppose to make you know what is good and bad. And that would help people figure what is the good life. When you think about moral duties then you will think about, moral knowledge. The person will think about it and try to figure out if it is easy to understand. When a person thinks about the status of moral claims and advice then the person will think about, how it could improve their life. All of the three main areas are linked together by knowledge.

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  3. The three main areas of morals come from moral value, normative ethics and Meta ethics. The value theory is when we think about life and see if it is valuable or not. In other words we ask ourselves about life, and use those answers, and get through life every day. Normative ethics involves us to think of our moral duties and use a role model for that and follow him/her. Meta ethics is when we think about our morals and interpreting them. We link everything together, and create a basic understanding of moral behavior, and the ideal moral behavior, depending on what we believe what is right and wrong.
    When we think about what our morals are, we are using metaethics. We use that thinking and find someone and display that moral behavior, and use that person as a role model, which is normative ethics. The value theory puts everything to the test, and get through life.

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  4. The three main areas of moral philosophy are value theory, normative ethics, and metaethics. The value theory is about going through life and knowing what life is as a whole. Normative ethics is knowing your moral duties in the world which includes knowing right from wrong. Metaethics is having the knowledge of right and wrong and seeking out that knowledge if one does not currently have it.
    You cannot reference one area without referring to another because their definitions are very related. All of these theories include knowing right from wrong. So that means if you are going to answer a question about one theory, you must take into account the possible answers for the other two theories, which greatly limits the window for possible answers.

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  7. Moral skepticism is to think all ethical views are equally plausible or that they simply do not exist. The reasons people give for being moral skeptics are 1. individuals constantly disagree 2.the idea of morals are just a human construct 3. nothing is right or wrong because science can't prove it 4. there is no universal ethic 5. no moral rule is absolute. I think moral skepticism is correct because the points skeptics have are reasonable, everyone has different views about morals and we cannot change that. Skeptics also force us to think about what we think is right.

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  8. Question Number 5
    When one takes the path of least resistance without challenge, discomfort, inconvenience, etc, pleasure becomes a vice sought to avoid growth. I believe that as a philosophy,
    Hedonism is incomplete. It's against most of my ideologies of life. Life is about the pleasure and the pain, the experience and the knowledge.
    The way of Hedonism is against paths chosen to gain enlightenment and nirvana. Paths I would rather take than a path of pleasure and no knowledge.

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  9. Question #1
    Value theory, normative ethics, meta-ethics. Because they are similar, if you answer one of them you can answer all of them.
    Question #2
    Pro0f that God exists. No firm consensise on what is right or wrong.

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  10. 3 Main Areas of Moral Philosophy: Value Theory, Normative Ethics, and Metaethics. The Value Theory is about Life and going through it. Normative Ethics are about Moral duties and Justifying Ends and means. Metaethics are about moral claims and advice.

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  11. Moral skepticism is to think all ethical views are equally plausible or that they simply do not exist. Skeptics are often pessimistic and it is not hard to find problems in the universe. they often pose these questions
    1. individuals constantly disagree
    2.the idea of morals are just a human construct 3. nothing is right or wrong because science can't prove it
    4. there is no universal ethic
    5. no moral rule is absolute.
    I think skeptics can be downers and it can be rude to be so negative. but to each his own.

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  12. I chose quetsion number one: The three main areas of moral philosophy are value theory, normative ethics, and metaethics. Value theory is about what makes life well going. Normative ethics is knowing what our moral duties Metaethics is what is the staus of ethics.

    Anwsering one of these as a question they all end up having something to do with each other. They connect to each other you may think they don't but they do fore example one way they connect is life and also whats right and wrong on how we veiw things

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  13. Question Number 2

    Moral skepticism is having doubts about morality (thinking either that it does not exist or that everything is equally right/wrong). Some reasons people give for being moral skeptics are the disagreement between what is right and wrong, the belief that God does not exist, science tells the truth but says nothing about morals, it's not okay to impose our views on others, and it would not be okay to break moral rules, but every rule has exceptions. I don't think that moral skepticism is correct because I believe that morals do exist. I understand why people are skeptical, though.

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  14. Question #1:
    The three main areas of moral philosophy are value theory, normative ethics, and metaethics.
    Answering for one philosophical point of view provides a new and different perspective on the other two. For instance, the moral obligations suggested by normative ethics may pose problems and/or limitations for concepts of value. Vis-a-vis the question of what should be valued most, we have the limiting ideas of moral obligation and rightness.

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  15. When dissecting the divisions of ethics, three main parts of the subject include Metaethics, Value Theory, and Normative Ethics. Metaethics deals with deciding what is right and what is wrong in life. The Value Theory defines what life's true meaning is to it's most basic fundamentals. Normative Ethics concerns what our moral responsibilities to each other are and who's example we should follow. All three areas of ethics overlap each other. It can be desribed as a three-way Venn Diagram. When we talk about who our role models in life should be (Normative Ethics), we also think about what is truly the right thing to do (Metaethics). In similar fashion, knowing what life is all about (Value Theory) also deals with knowing whats moral (Metaethics).

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  16. The value theory,normative ethics and metaethics are main areas for moral philosophy. They overlap in a lot of ways, for example the Value theory questions what is good life. It depends on what you value to be good. Like the value theory is what happiness is really the well being. Normative ethics is what is the relation to one in another like. It's connected by to describe one relation to one and another. Metaethics compares both of the others.

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  17. The three main areas of moral philosophy are, value theory, normative ethics, and metaethics. Answering one of theses questions can give the answer to one of the others. If you answer question two and you find out what you moral duties are you can also find the answer to question three which is, what is the status of our moral claims. Come to think of it, you can't really find out what the status of your moral claims are, unless you know what your moral duties are. Also you can't have moral wisdom without knowing what your moral duties are.

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  18. Moral skepticism is a view in which ethical views are either completely wrong or they have some merit to being right. Something’s moral skeptics might say are: God made morals but God does not exist so there are no morals, and science tells the truth and facts about the world and it says nothing about right and wrong. There are always exceptions to morals. I do not thing moral skepticism is right but I do believe that it is right for there to be moral skepticism in the world because we need someone to argue the opposite end of the spectrum so we look deeper into what we believe. We need a balance in our lives because if we all believed in the same thing then what would our world become. Also because I don’t believe that some view should be completely left out if it was partially wrong. They view that may be wrong could have some real world merit.

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