PHIL 2750 Study Guide - Summer 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Earth, Baltimore Stars, Social Contract
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PHIL 2750
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Back in the 12th century, in university studied theology, rhetoric (logic), law (studies contract, roman
law to increase trade), philosophy.
Text pp 1-24 - talk about nature science
What is philosophy?
• Leftover from what has not become a science
• Handmaiden of the science
Types of philosophy:
1. Epistemology - theory of knowledge
2. Axiology - value theory - the study of human value, ethics, aesthetics (judgement of values of art,
film, music), social political philosophy
3. Logic - the study of formal reasoning
4. Metaphysic - the study of the underlying nature of reality (nature of mind, personal identify)
Free will in agency:
• Do human have free will?
• What is free will?
What is ethics (in 4 areas)?
1. Descriptive ethics - describing what human do believe re: ethics (in professional resp0sibiligilty
course, sociology, anthropology etc.
2. Normative ethics - the study of normative theories of ethics
3. Applied ethics - the study of actual ethical questions (applying ethical theory to actual questions) -
applied normative ethics
4. Metaethics - the study of the underlying nature of ethics
What is moral fact?
• Portative moral fact: th shall not commit murder
• Moral Nihilism: there is no small thing as a moral fact
• Moral Realism: there are moral facts and they do not depend on what we believe about them
(theistic ethics, natural ethics - moral facts reduce to biological psychological facts about human
beings)
• Constructivist ethics: there are moral fact and they depends on human belief
o Example: 100 Canadian dollar bill is
• Is a piece of plastic is - Physical fact does not depend on believe
• Is 100 CAD - is a fact that depend on our believe, gives us the currency.
• Cultural ethical relativism: there are moral facts and they depend on the belief of a cultural
o Often comes to moral disagreement (because people believe different things), tolerance
o Reduces to individual ethical relativism
• Objectivist constructionism: there are moral facts and they depend on beliefs under certain
constraints , e.g. rationality
Moral agency:
• Agent - one who acts
• We have to made a distinction between an event and an act.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Event is a product of natural laws
o Act is depending upon of decisions/ choice and control
• What precede the action?
▪ Something having in your mind, belief
Final exam: draw a picture of a pirate or a pirate-piglet or my cat piglet
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Back in the 12th century, in university studied theology, rhetoric (logic), law (studies contract, roman law to increase trade), philosophy. Text pp 1-24 - talk about nature science. Leftover from what has not become a science: handmaiden of the science. Is a piece of plastic is - physical fact does not depend on believe. Final exam: draw a picture of a pirate or a pirate-piglet or my cat piglet. Normative theories of ethics: utilitarianism, deontological, virtue ethics. Broad categories of normative theories: theories of the good, theories of the right. Theories of the good begin by specifying what is good, what is ethical then becomes whatever results in the good --> consequentialist theories. Theories of the right will say that actions are right or wrong in themselves, without regard to consequences --> non-consequentialist. Principle of utility: act in such a way as to maximize the aggregate utility (measured in happiness, pain minimization) for all affected by the act.
