PHI 1370 Midterm: Midterm Review
6 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Philosophical Issues in Health Care
Notes: Midterm Review
Prof: K. Ferguson
1) What is meant by the term ‘moral theory’ (as it used in philosophy)
➢ A moral theory is something that tries to give a complete answer to the question of how
to determine whether an act is morally right or wrong. As well, whether or not we have
an obligation to do or not to do that act. There are two types of moral theories,
consequentialism in which the rightness or wrongness of an act depends only on it
consequences and effects. And non-consequentialism in which consequences are not
the only thing that affects the morality of an act.
2) The principle of utility, and how Utilitarian’s would justify it (i.e. their theory of value)
➢ Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. Actions are right in proportion as they tend
to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. An act
is morally permissible is there is no other act that could have produced more overall
happiness. Utilitarians would justify it as the distinct between whether an act is
instrumentally good or intrinsically good. Instrumentally good acts are good as a means
to something else that a person would want while intrinsically good acts are acts that
are good for their own sake. They are acts that are not nearly as a meant to something
that you want. Utilitarians believe that the only thing that is intrinsically good is
happiness.
3) Three major objections against act utilitarianism
➢ Act utilitarianism is too demanding and requires too much of people because it is hard
to know what the consequences of an action will be because there are too many
variables. As well, it cannot account for special relationships because you must do what
will produce the most happiness. An example of this would be having the choose
between saving your mother and letting five strangers die. You would have to save the
strangers and let your mother die because it is the solution that produces the most
amount of happiness. As well, act utilitarianism would sometimes violate people’s rights
in order to produce the most amount of happiness. An example of this would be if there
were five people who needed organs and one healthy person. In order to generate the
most happiness organs would have to be taken from the healthy person in order to save
the five people.
4) The distinction between act and rule utilitarianism
➢ Act Utilitarianism applies the principle of utility to individual acts. It is to try to do acts
that produce as much happiness as possible. While rule utilitarianism applies the
principle of utility to rules. It is a system of rules for society that will maximize overall
happiness in society and then society will follow those rules. An example of this would
be killing someone to use their organs. Act utilitarians would kill an innocent person to
use their organs while, rule utilitarians would follow the rules to not kill innocent people
which would contribute to overall happiness.
5) How rule utilitarianism would help to avoid important objections against act
utilitarianism
➢ Rule utilitarianism would help to avoid important objections against act utilitarianism
because rule utilitarianism protects human rights. It does not say to try to maximize
happiness in everyday actions since people make mistakes.
6) The respect-for-persons version of the categorical imperative
➢ Kant’s ethics involve a single basic moral principle: the categorical imperative which
means a command with no exceptions. The respect-for-persons version states to always
act in such a way that you treat people, including yourself, as ends in themselves and
never merely as a means. It is okay to treat people as a means but not to treat them
merely as a mean. The advantages of this is that it is simple and provides a foundation
for autonomy and human rights. However, it is somewhat vague and does not account
for all right and wrong.
7) Kant’s universalizability test for the rightness of an act
➢ The universalizability version is to always act in such a way that the maxim of your act
could be a universal law. Whenever you do something, make sure that it would at least
be possible for everybody else to act in the same way, to do the same type of act you’re
doing. An example of this would be making a fake promise. The maxim of the act would
be that you need money and you can get it by making a false promise. The universalizing
would be what happened if everyone followed this rule. This act is therefore wrong
because it can’t be universalized.
8) W.D. Ross’s “pluralist” approach to ethics
➢ W.D. Ross believe that the amount of happiness produced was not the most important
thing, he rejects the idea of a single moral theory. Doing the right thing involves
following a set of principles. The principles are not absolute but we should follow each
of the rules unless there is a good reason not to. And when the rules conflict we should
try to decide intuitively which should override the other. Examples of this would be
telling the truth, keeping promises and trying to help others when you can.
9) Virtue ethics
➢ The idea that morality is embedded in social and cultural practices and institutions. The
goal is to become a virtuous person, to acquire virtues such as honestly, generosity… To
learn morality, you have to make yourself familiar by growing up among social
institutions and customs to learn the customs of that institution.
10) Feminist criticisms of traditional Western ethics
➢ There are several criticism of traditional western ethics by feminists because there is not
enough concern for women’s rights and issues. As well, it is focused on abstract,
intellectual issues, and neglected oppression and political domination. Western ethics
overlooks moral problems in the private as opposed to the public domain. In addition, it
undervalues community, peace, solidarity and interdependence and overvalues theory,
rules, concepts, at the expense of emotion and feeing in ethics.
11) The difference between moral theories and moral principles
➢ Moral theories are put forward as a complete description and explanation of what is
right and wrong. Decisions are meant to hold always and can never be overridden.
Moral principles however, are relevant consideration in a broad range of situations but
may be overridden by some other principle or value.
12) How the utilitarian and Kantian ethical theories would justify autonomy
➢ Autonomy concerns the extent to which a people have control over their lives and
actions. The utilitarian perspective is called the instrumental value. It justifies autonomy
as each person is able to know and control their own happiness, individuality leads to
new ideas and knowledge which benefits humanity and that people derive satisfaction
from controlling their lives. The Kantian perspective is called the intrinsic value. It
justifies autonomy as the ability to act autonomously is good in itself and it is what
makes us human. As well that the characteristics we regard as virtues presuppose
autonomy.
13) Why the negative concept of freedom is inadequate
➢ The negative concept of freedom is that a person is free as long as there is no external
constraint as to what they can do. However, this is inadequate because external
constraints do not affect the freedom of a person’s will, it just prevents them from
doing what they freely decide to do. A person’s decision-making power is sometimes
not under his/her control internal constraints which undermines or destroys the
freedom of their will.
14) The double-decker (or hierarchical) theory of autonomy
➢ First order desires are ordinary desires for things in the world while second order
desires are desires that are in some way about other desires.
15) Three reasons for thinking that harming someone is worse than failing to help someone
➢ A reason why harming someone is worse than failing to help someone is that the is a
greater moral stigma attached to harming. As well it is wrong to seriously harm one
person in order to benefit from another person. As well you must accept a greater risk
to yourself to avoid harming someone than to help someone because harming is more
often illegal than not helping
16) Three different types of justification for confidentiality in health care
➢ Protecting the privacy of the patient because even if our social, economic and other
interests were not threatened by reveling information about ourselves, our privacy still
has enormous value. As well, protecting the social status of the patient is important
because we behave differently in private and in public and there are many things a
person might say or do in private but would never do in public. By protecting the social
Document Summary
Prof: k. ferguson: what is meant by the term moral theory" (as it used in philosophy) A moral theory is something that tries to give a complete answer to the question of how to determine whether an act is morally right or wrong. As well, whether or not we have an obligation to do or not to do that act. There are two types of moral theories, consequentialism in which the rightness or wrongness of an act depends only on it consequences and effects. And non-consequentialism in which consequences are not the only thing that affects the morality of an act: the principle of utility, and how utilitarian"s would justify it (i. e. their theory of value) Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. An act is morally permissible is there is no other act that could have produced more overall happiness.
