PHILOS 1D03 Lecture Notes - Human Condition, Human Action
6 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
These ethical systems make assumptions about the nature of human nature. Basic assumptions: human condition is unchanging, human good is readily determinable, human action cannot change human nature. Why has the nature of human action changed: modern technology. Our actions now have consequences for the environment, the future and the nature of humanity itself. Human condition concerns the human relationship to environment. Traditional ethics assumes radical separation between the human and the natural world: this is no longer the case. Traditional ethics is concerned with our relationship to: other sentient beings [utilitarianism, other rational beings [deontology, other social beings [rawls] It is not set up to deal with our relation to the environment as a whole. Ethical action requires knowledge of what one ought to do. Traditional ethics assumes that this knowledge is commensurate with our ability to affect change: this is no longer the case. Traditional ethics assumed that human nature was inviolable.
