L30 Phil 235F Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics
16 Jan 2019
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Document Summary
Reasons for acting one way rather than another. Normative ethics (determines the right thing to do) Utilitarianism - the right thing to do is what will maximize happiness. Applied ethics (practical applications of normative ethical theories) Environmental ethics: addresses ethical issues concerning our ecological context. Philosophy is the field of thinking critically and carefully about fundamental concepts, questions, and principles. We refer to them often but don"t typically reflect on them. We all rely on them implicitly, but philosophy discusses them explicitly. Philosophical argument: a series of sentences, the last of which is the conclusion, and the rest of which are premises. Validity: impossible for the premises to be true while the conclusion is false. Soundness: valid argument with all true premises. Moral arguments concern what we ought to do (or ought not to do), or what is morally good (or bad) Y is just like x in relevant respects.
