Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
ETHICS THEME 2, Real Good and Apparent Good, Euthanasia, Primary precepts,…
ETHICS THEME 2
Propotionalism
- Due to this, Hoose believes there could be a bad action that could still be a right action as Hoose believes the world isn't perfect due to the Fall and it is filled with preontic evil
- Due to this, Hoose believes there could be a bad action that could still be a right action as Hoose believes the world isn't perfect due to the Fall and it is filled with preontic evil
- Hoose's Proportionalism Maxim is a balance point between deontological and teleological ethics- 'it is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason to justify it.'
- Adaption of Aquinas's Natural Law with the aim of making it a more flexible theory to accommodate the complexity of modern moral dilemma
Teleological Ethics
-
- In order to establish a set of absolute moral principles based on reason, one must be able to justify the Deontology of the ethics by pointing to possible outcome that go against them. For example, abortion is wrong because the consequences goes against the Deontological precepts of preserve innocent life and reproduce.
-
Euthanasia
- doing something to deliberately bring about death
e.g. lethal injectoon
- Natural Law doesn't allow Euthanasia
-
-
Involuntary= ending someone life without their consent, when they are able to give it
-
Scripture: in OT, a man falsely claims to have killed a man called Saul at his own request as he was severely injured in battle, which King David condemns
- Could be situations where Doctor gives medical treatment, unintentionally killing individual- A doctor could give high dose with intention of easing his pain further and kills patient with overdose. Even though patient wanted to be euthanised due to interior act of Doctor following (P), external act justified- Doctor hasn't sinned and still tried to fulfil Real Good
-
Secondary Precepts
-
-
Humans are then to use their reason to establish rules that will fulfil the requirements of the primary precepts. These rules are known as secondary precepts.
-
- secondary precepts may not hold in certain circumstances so it is accepted that there may be situations where in order to follow a primary precept, you have to break a secondary precept
-
-
-
-
Thomas Aquinas
- Order and purpose that we observe in the world reflects the will of god and something is 'good' when it achieves its God-given purpose.
the ultimate purpose of humans is to reach union and fellowship with god because we are made in his image.
- God is the 'highest hood' to which humans strive and they should aim to fulfil god's will
- 13th Century Catholic theologian
- Aquinas said "to disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to condemning the command of god"
Would humans knowingly pursue evil?
- no as according to Aquinas, humans are naturally included to "achieve good and avoid evil" to fulfil our telos
- we naturally know what 'good' is due to our god-given reason
Interior and Exterior Acts:
- both were important but a bad exterior act is not made morally 'right' by a good interior act. acts are intrinsically good or bad because when humans act in accordance with their telos, god is glorified
Key Terms
Apparent good = something that appears good when really it isn't, taking us further away from what god intended for humans
-
-
-
-
Abortion
Case study: Sky
- Sky is 16
- 12 weeks pregnant
- Isn't married, and her boyfriend is unable to support her financially or emotionally
- Her parents will possibly disown her if they found out that she was pregnant
-
-
-
What should sky do?
- Not have an abortion
- She must consider Love- Agape to unborn child.
- Justice- not the unborn childs fault that her life is the way it is
- Must confront her fear- Fortitude
-
What type of Good is this?
-
-
- If woman had an ectopic pregnancy, when the foetus implants itself into the fallopian tube rather than the womb it could be dangerous for the mother if no medical intervention is taken
- In this situation, Doctor needs to follow preserve innocent life of mother, and perform a medical procedure(Interior) and remove fallopian tube to save mothers life(Exterior)
- The interior and exterior Acts satisfy the criteria of a 'Real Good,' however there is an unintended secondary act, which s ending the pregnancy
Revealed Virtues
-
- hope- Desire to be with God in Heaven
-
"and now these three remain: faith hope and love. but the greatest of these is love" (1 corinthians 13:13)
Cardinal Virtues
-
-
- represent qualities our god-given reason says we need for moral life
- allow us to do 'real goods'
- develops ability to use reason correctly
Cardinal Virtues
- prudence (sound, rational judgement)
-
- justice (fair behaviour and treatment of others)
- temperance (moderation/self-control)
Double Effect
What is Double Effect?
-
-
-
it is sometimes right to do a good act despite knowing it will bring bad consequences as long as they are unintended side-effects
- Intentions can 'trump' actions
- There are some circumstances where a certain act brings about two effects, one of these effects could cash with a primary/secondary precept.
- In order to discern whether the act is good or bad, must analyse intention rather than act itself
- For example, Thomas Aquinas' justification of killing in self-defence, as even though you are murdering another person, intention is to preserve innocent life, making the action morally justifiable
Revealed Virtues
What are they?
-
- superlative as they define and direct all other virtues
- prefect as they're absolute and superlative
- inspirational as can't be fully achieved in this world, acting as a standard to which humans should strive
- Aquinas believed that once we consolidate these virtues through practice, the Precepts become second nature, and we are able to follow Natural Law expertly and end up in fellowship with God in Heaven
-
Do not murder- preserve innocent life
Do not abort the unborn- Reproduce and Preserve innocent life
Do not steal- order society
- There is a fair set of rules for everyone
- However, it is not just a large number of rules dictating what we should do
- All the things that are good for us are celebrated, rather than focusing on negative things
- Humans are at the centre of this ethical approach, not rules
- It allows us to use our reason and so feel in control of the secondary precepts
- In modern forms Natural Law does not allow for negotiation because the Church has made the secondary precepts into absolute rules.
- It is based on very complicated notions and doesn’t ask everyday questions such as 'should hospitals get more money than schools'?
- It could be argued that we have gained our natural instincts through evolution, not through God and so we do not need a God-based theory
- We can observe differences between cultures, which rejects the notion of a single natural purpose for all humans
Exterior Act= actions of the moral agent
Interior Act= the intention of a moral agent behind the action
Apparent good = something that appears good when really it isn't, taking us further away from what god intended for humans
Real Good= the right use of reason which leads to actions which bring us towards our telos
Recta Ratio= God-given inbuilt ability of humans to reason
- Reason is used in order to establish how we should live our lives. We use our reason to fulfil the requirements of the primary precepts and therefore to achieve our aim of doing good and avoiding evil.
- At times humans use their reason incorrectly because they are following apparent goods rather than real goods. An example of an apparent good is taking drugs - it seems like we are doing a good thing but in reality we are not!
- Aquinas also noted that God knows the secrets of our hearts and so our actions must be interior rather than exterior - the motive behind an action counts. For example we should help an elderly person cross the road because it is the correct thing to do not because we want to impress a boy/girl who's watching nearby
what view is natural law based on?
- the universe has a natural order that works to achieve an end or purpose (telos)
- humans are apart of the natural world and so have a purpose. they have an innate sense to follow a natural moral law that leads them to fulfil their purpose
what does natural law trace back to?
- Aquinas said "to disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to condemning the command of god"
- Order and purpose that we observe in the world reflects the will of god and something is 'good' when it achieves its God-given purpose
the ultimate purpose of humans is to reach union and fellowship with god because we are made in his image.
- God is the 'highest hood' to which humans strive and they should aim to fulfil god's will
- 13th Century Catholic theologian
Would humans knowingly pursue evil?
- no as according to Aquinas, humans are naturally included to "achieve good and avoid evil" to fulfil our telos
- we naturally know what 'good' is due to our god-given reason
Interior and Exterior Acts:
- Faith- trust in God
-Hope- Desire to be with God in Heaven
- Love- Agape
- "and now these three remain: faith hope and love. but the greatest of these is love" (1 corinthians 13:13)
- revealed through the bible (divine law)
- superlative as they define and direct all other virtues
- perfect as they're absolute and superlative
- inspirational as can't be fully achieved in this world, acting as a standard to which humans should strive
why have we got Cardinal virtues
- Reflects moral life
- Reprsent qualities our god-given reason says we need for moral life
- allow us to do 'real goods'
- develops ability to use reason correctly
- Prudence( rational judgement)
- Fortitude( Courage)
- Justice ( fair behaviour and treatment of others)
- Temperance ( moderation/self-control)
- Scripture: in OT, a man falsely claims to have killed a man called Saul at his own request as he was severely injured in battle, which King David condemns
- non-voluntary= ending someone life without their consent when they are unable to give it
- doing something to deliberately bring about death
e.g. lethal injectoon
- Natural Law doesn't allow Euthanasia
Passive= allowing someone to die
e.g. withholding treatment
Voluntary= carried out at the request of the dying person
Involuntary= ending someone life without their consent, when they are able to give it
Should Sky have an abortion?
What must be applied?
- Recta Ration
Primary Precept:
- Preserve innocent life
Secondary Precept:
- Do not abort
What should Sky do: not have abortion, she must consider love- agape to unborn child, justice- not the unborn childs fault that her life is the way it is, confront her fear- fortitude
Are both interior and exterior acts good?
What type of Good is this?
- In this situation, Doctor needs to follow preserve innocent life of mother, and perform a medical procedure(Interior) and remove fallopian tube to save mothers life(Exterior)
- Intentions can trump actions
Explain this:
- situations where there is an intended outcome and another significant but unintended outcome
- Its always wrong to intentionally do a bad act to bring about a good consequence
-
- There are some circumstances where a certain act brings about two effects, one of these effects could cash with a primary/secondary precept.
- In order to discern whether the act is good or bad, must analyse intention rather than act itself
- Adaption of Aquinas's Natural Law with the aim of making it a more flexible theory to accommodate the complexity of modern moral dilemma
- Hoose's Proportionalism Maxim is a balance point between deontological and teleological ethics- 'it is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason to justify it.'
- Due to this, Hoose believes there could be a bad action that could still be a right action as Hoose believes the world isn't perfect due to the Fall and it is filled with preontic evil