•Metaphysics- What is reality? Is the mind different from the body? Does god exist? Are humans free?
•Epistemology-What does it mean to know something? Are we justified in believing that things are as we perceive them? What makes a statement true?
•Ethics-What makes an action right, or a person good? Is morality objective or subjective? Is it ever acceptable to lie? Is euthanasia moral?
•Logic-What does it mean for some statements to follow from others? What structure makes an argument valid?
-So say someone has amnesia
What he likes and doesn’t like
What he wants to do with his life
What kid of person he wants to be
Morality?
Ethical stand point?
What is Morality for? To keep society from falling apart To relieve human suffering To promote human flourishing To resolve conflicts of interest in just and orderly ways To assign praise and blame, reward and punishment, and guilt
What is Ethics?
-Is there a difference between morality and ethics? No- they mean the same thing Yes-Morality is personal, and ethics is public/professional Yes-Morality refers to what people believe and ethics is the philosophical evaluation of those beliefs
-Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with human conduct and its evaluation.
•Descriptive ethics-Accounts of what moral views people do accept and the psychological and sociological explanation of why
•Evaluative (or prescriptive) ethics- Attempts to say that moral views people should accept backed up by reasons and arguments.
Why be moral? 1. Why should we as a society have some system of morality?
To have balance in society, social rule, order and organisation 2. Why should I be a moral person?
Self invested reasons, reasons based on other peoples interests 3. Why should I do a moral act, on this occasion?
Reasons based on other peoples interests? Self interested
