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THEFT & LYING - Coggle Diagram
THEFT & LYING
THEFT
NATURAL MORAL LAW
- Breaches primary precept of living in an ordered society since is leads to disorder
- Goes against secondary precept to not steal
- this is reinforced in divine law- the ten commandments
- Aquinas made an exception in the case of desperate need
- a starving man might steal food from someone who had plenty, and this would be considered lawful
- the primary precept to preserve life takes priority over an order society
- its also seen as practicing the cardinal virtue of justice
- proportionalusm would agree with Aquinas' exception since:
- the intention is good
- the value of saving a life is proportional greater than the disvalue of injustice to the victim
SITUATION ETHICS
- Fletcher would consider the teaching or the church and bible on theft, but wouldn't feel bound by them
- the interests of people take priority over rules
- the motive must be right
- the consequences cant be negative
- you cannot be just through theft
- Agape love should be shown- you should be concerned with cousing love for others too
- love of neighbours has to be shown (mark 12:31)
- fletcher says love and justice are the same
- theft isnt just as it deprives others e.g other students from accessing a textbook you steal
VIRTUE ETHICS
- Focused on character development over a persons lifetime
- focued on acting from habit, which has developed from a lifeltime of continual practice of virtue, emulating a phtonimous
- usually this allows for felxibility, taking into account the individual and the situation
- however Aristotle denounced all theft as a base action
- he included it in a list olfaction with no mean, since it can never be the act if a virtuous person
- theres no extreme of excess of deficient
- its always the action of an unjust person
- if applied to the situation of a starving child, it could be described as distributing justice because theres god intention
- it is redistributing from someone who already has enough
LYING
NATURAL MORAL LAW
- Breaches primary precept to live in an ordered society
- breaches secondary precept to not tell lies
- its included in the 10 commandments, therefore reinforced in divine law
- goes against Aquinas' cardinal virtues of courage and justice
- Aquinas views all lying as wrong, even those intended to save lies
- tis is because it fails to represent what is on ones mind- its 'unnatural'
- howver he views 'prudently keeping back the truth' as morally permissable
- this could be termed a 'necessary lie' (to protect someone form danger
- proportionality would agree lying in most cases is morally wrong, but there are exceptions
- in the case if a necessary lie, the intention would be to save a life; protection from harm
- the value of saving a life is proportionally greater than the disvalue of injustice to the victim of the lie
VIRTUE ETHICS
- Lying seems to contradict Aristotles moral virtues of truthfulness and courage
- it courageous to tell the truth and be honest
- lying causes issues with social interactions, and you dont come across as yourself when socialising with others
- instead, you create a false image
- the intention needs to be considered- is it virtuous?
- truthfulness is more complex than merely telling the truth or telling a lie
- it combines a range of virtues
- e.g telling the truth often requires courage in admitting failings
- in some instances, friendship, loyalty and honour might require a lie to be told
- the virtue of practical wisdom enables a virtuous person to know which virtue takes priority in difficult situations
SITUATION ETHICS
- Fletcher believed lying was neither intrinsically right nor intrinsically wrong
- if the agapeic calculus showed that love would e best served by withholding information (e.g telling a white lie), then lying would not be the lesser of two evils, it would be positively good