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I. THE PLACE OF ETHICS IN AXIOLOGY Descriptivism – holds that ethical statements are
Values are the things we preferred or desired obtained in the same way as factual statements
and accordingly that we understand the meaning
Axiology – the study of values and valuing nature of ethical judgments by determining their truth
and the kind of things that we value conditions
Four Major Areas of Axiology Descriptivist – claims that we can describe what
1. Truth – discriminate among ideas people do, but can never judge the moral worth
2. Holy – seeking more of the experience of God of their behavior
and what holy element of the religion is
embraced TWO DESCRIPTIVIST THEORY
3. Sense of Beauty A. The Emotivism of A. J. Ayer
Aesthetics – axiology that deals with Two kinds of cognitively meaningful statements:
beauty 1. Analytic
4. Human Behavior – deals with actions and 2. Empirically verifiable
attitudes
Cognitively meaningful propositions –
• Consider the nature of ethical value, criteria statements that are either true or false
for sorting major systems, values of reality Examples:
in which they are based 1. The book has 500 pages
2. Up is pink
II. KEY TERMS IN ETHICS
1. Good and Evil – refers to situation or state Analytic Propositions – the predicate term
2. Right and Wrong – refers to actions that simply analyses the content of the subject term
people do Example: “Fathers are male”
3. Ought and Obligation – sense of inner
constraint that bonds our consciences Empirically Verifiable Proposition – a
Obligation – feeling of constraint proposition known to be true or false by some
Ought – power to enhance a value sensory observation that would verify it
4. Egoism – own good that matters Example: “My father is blond”
Altruism – concerned with the good of others
5. Act theory – at different situations, actions In summary, for both propositions, we know
must be calculated separately what procedure to follow to determine whether
Rule Theory – treats acts as classes or sets they are true or false.
6. Intrinsic Value – often intangible that cannot
be taken away without consent Proposition: “Stealing is wrong”
Extrinsic Value – possessed or gained from Cognitively meaningless terms: good, bad, right,
outside wrong and ought
7. Metaethics – analysis of ethical terms and “Ayer is propounding a non-cognitivist view of
their usage in language and the methods used to ethics. To argue whether ethical propositions are
justify ethical statements true is to commit nonsense”
8. Objectivism – source of value is outside of
mankind Criticisms of Emotivism
Subjectivism – values arise from human a. Self-contradiction
consciousness Example: “All cognitively meaningful
propositions are either analytic or empirically
verifiable”
b. Impracticability Absolutists or Objectivists – philosophers who
If we take emotivism as a way of getting away argue that some norms are universal
from ethical issues, we must assess the price to Relativists – no norms are universal
be paid. Relativism – of two types: cultural and subjective
If there is no right or wrong, how can we hope to
solve problems of human behavior? I. SUBJECTIVE RELATIVISM: JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Jean Paul Sartre – 20th century existentialist
B. Thomas Hobbes & Psychological Egoistic believes that the fundamental fact about human
Hedonism beings is their capacity for free choice
1. The State of Nature – in this “state of nature”, – insists that no norms ____ outside the
each person would express his innate drive for individual person
self-preservation & self-assertion – a person cannot choose the wrong act
Nothing is right or wrong – all have equal right to because the act itself defines right. One can only
seek pleasure in any way say that one would not choose the same act
“My psychology is such that I must do what I again – in this sense, the act is “wrong”
think will bring more pleasure than pain. I can be – Intersubjectivity → communicating
mistaken due to lack of knowledge, but I can with one another and interacting with one
never be wrong in the exercise of my will.” another
Subjective Relativism – all value arises from
2. The State of Law within the individual
Human beings are merely selfish: they are smart
A form of society is formed in which gives up his II. CULTURAL RELATIVISM: ANTHROPOLOGISTS
absolute right to do whatever he wants to a • is well-known that an act that is considered
sovereign power right in one society is judged wrong in
“I respect your life and poverty as you do mine, another
not because there is anything immoral about • it states that the norms accepted by the
killing or stealing, but because we are too smart culture define right and wrong, good and
to risk the pain we will incur if we are caught.” evil. Here, the culture, not the individual,
decides what is right and wrong
In summary, Hobbes’ views man as a selfish, • Ethics in any culture is derived from that
pleasure-seeking animal, whose actions are culture’s perception of reality, of the kind of
curbed only by the force of law. the world we live in and what it means to be
a human being in that world
CHAPTER 9 – INTRODUCTION TO
NORMATIVISM Three Major Weaknesses:
1. It is based on the questionable fact of ethical
Normativism – includes all theories that put diversity
forth norms by which we can measure actions 2. If cultural relativism is the last word in ethics,
and pass moral judgement upon them we have no hope of saving modern problems,
Norms – criteria for evaluating acts in terms of there being no rational basis for change in
right and wrong and for deciding the nature of cultural values
good and evil 3. Cultural relativism is unable to justify moral
Normativists – said that we must acknowledge progress
some kind of norms if we are to avoid total moral
chaos III. OBJECTIVISM
– Tasks: propose ethical norms, defend • the theory that there are moral
them rationally and show to whom they apply principles that do not depend on how
humans think about them
ABSOLUTISM: one type of objectivism, holding • Pleasure always means my pleasure,
one or more moral principles cannot be hence it is a form of egoism
overridden • Pleasure is sought automatically by
ABSOLUTISTS: one could never justify acts that every human being and is thus a
op against these principles psychological, not an ethical theory
: proclaims the dignity of every human • Ethical theory – requires that one has a
being – that means that acts against human duty to seek the good
dignity are morally wrong, no matter what the
culture II. PSYCHOLOGICAL ALTRUISTIC HEDONISM:
SOCIOBIOLOGY
CHAPTER 10 – CONSEQUENTIALIST THEORIES • Sociobiology – claims that human
PART 1: HEDONISM behavior, including ethical behavior,
The norms by which we decide whether an act can be explained as the result of genetic
is right or wrong lie in the consequences of that evolution
act.
• If act produces good – morally right III. ETHICAL HEDONISM
• If act results to evil – morally wrong • seeking pleasure is not automatic
• seeking the most pleasure possible is an
Consequentialism ideal we must strive for, not a mere fact
• expresses the meaning of the theory it describing how we always act anyway
labels • either egoistic or altruistic
C. Solipsism or God?
Solipsism – only the mind and its thoughts exist
or an infinite mind that constantly perceives the
entire universe