PHL 302 Study Guide - Comprehensive Midterm Guide: Ethical Subjectivism, John Stuart Mill, Moral Relativism
Document Summary
Our societies are organized on the basis of economic and political ideas. It considers the nature of thought and belief, as well as what, in particular, is thought a believed. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that considers ideas about how humans should treat one another, and how societies should be organized. The subject matter of ethics is central to our lives; as socrates puts it. An ethical dilemma occurs whenever we must a decision and none of the possible courses of action open to us is entirely satisfactory because each violates a value we think important. The purpose of ethical theory is to help us think clearly about what is at issue and to make a rational decision a decision that has the best arguments in its favor about what should be done. There are two approaches to morality that attempt to capture this perspective: ethical relativism.