evgeny yauhenio's Library tagged ethics →  View Popular

In the heat of battle, their minds clouded by fear, anger or vengefulness, even the best-trained soldiers can act in ways that violate the Geneva Conventions or battlefield rules of engagement. Now some researchers suggest that robots could do better.

www.nytimes.com/...25robots.html - Preview

cyberwar cyberwarfare robots ethics legal morality

1. [edit] Rehabilitation\n2. Incapacitation\n3. Deterrence / Prevention\n4. Restoration\n5. Retribution\n6. Education

public punishment is a collective activity of reinserting the primacy of the nomos.

en.wikipedia.org/Punishment - Preview

punishment theories reasons ethics

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (born January 12, 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology. He is the O'Brien Senior Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame./////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

MacIntyre is a key figure in the recent surge of interest in virtue ethics, which identifies the central question of morality as having to do with the habits, virtues and knowledges concerning how one should live one's life. This approach has a greater scope than others. MacIntyre and his supporters focus on moral problems having to do with how to make the most of an entire human life, whereas most others often focus on such specific ethical debates such as abortion, homosexual rights, etc. MacIntyre is not silent on such matters, but he approaches them from a wider context and less rule-based standard.

This is an approach to moral philosophy that demonstrates how good judgment of individuals emanates from the development of good character. The underlying standards are grasped not through what a virtuous person "decides" but rather through the virtues of life that enable moral action to be both directed to its correct ends and consonant within its moral rationality. For example, it's impractical to say that wine X is the best wine on earth but there is wisdom in saying that person W is well known and widely respected for his/her views on wine and if he/she says wines 1, 2, and 3 are fantastic, chances are great that they are. This is a simplistic example to highlight only that judgements of virtuous persons in determining what is good or evil, right or wrong are more important than formal rules. In elaborating this approach, MacIntyre understands himself to be reworking the Aristotelian idea of an ethical teleology.

MacIntyre emphasises the importance of moral goods defined in respect to a comm

en.wikipedia.org/...Alasdair_MacIntyre - Preview

macintyre philosopher ethics virtue relativism morality

Registering and exploring feelings of anxiety that arise in emotional self-awareness helps enable us to detect when emotions and thoughts are inappropriate. Deliberation that is not emotionally open in this way is therefore at an epistemic disadvantage. Furthermore, the attempt to remain unemotional when evaluating one's emotions can be produced or co-opted by anxiety about one's feelings of precisely the kind that indicates one's emotional responses and thoughts are being distorted.....////Aristotle, Nagel, and Ross agree that ethical deliberation is rational but that we have no rules.
B. There is an argument that it must be possible in principle to formulate our knowledge in terms of rules.
1. There are reasons why ethical situations have the ethical values they do.
2. We are often able to see the value of ethical situations.
3. It must, therefore, be possible in principle to identify the important features in terms of rules."

papers.ssrn.com/...papers.cfm - Preview

ethics ethical deliberation ross nagel aristotle

Prima facie is a Latin expression meaning "on its first appearance", or "by first instance". It is used in modern legal English to signify that on first examination, a matter appears to be self-evident from the facts. In common law jurisdictions, prima facie denotes evidence that (unless rebutted) would be sufficient to prove a particular proposition or fact.The phrase is very commonly used, in exactly the same sense, in academic philosophy as well. Among the most notable uses of it in that discipline is the theory of ethics first proposed by W. D. Ross, often called the Ethic of Prima Facie Duties, as well as in epistemology, as used, e.g. by Robert Audi. It is generally used in reference to an obligation. "I have a prima facie obligation to keep my promise and meet my friend" means that I am under an obligation but this may yield to a more pressing duty. A more modern usage prefers the title ‘pro tanto obligation’: an obligation inasmuch as there is this or that aspect of the situation, but again suspending the all-in verdict. Is there a rule for how to weigh competing prima facie obligations? In The Right and the Good, Ross is pessimistic about the existence of such a rule: For the estimation of the comparative stringency of these prima facie obligations no general rules can, so far as I can see, be laid down. We can only say that a great deal of stringency belongs to the duties of “perfect obligation”—the duties of keeping our promises, of repairing wrongs we have done, and of returning the equivalent of services we have received. For the rest, έν τῃ αίσθήσει η κρίσις. [“The decision rests with perception,” from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics].


Most legal proceedings require a prima facie case to exist, following which proceedings may then commence to test it, and create a ruling.

en.wikipedia.org/Prima_facie - Preview

prima facie ethics obligations w.d. ross

Deontological ethics or deontology (Greek: δέον (deon) meaning 'obligation' or 'duty') is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions.[1] Let justice be done though the heavens fall! is one of its proud slogans.

It is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation" based ethics, because deontologists believe that ethical rules "bind you to your duty".[2] The term 'deontological' was first used in this way in 1930, in C. D. Broad's book, Five Types of Ethical Theory.[3]

Deontological ethics is commonly contrasted with consequentialist or teleological ethical theories, according to which the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences.[4] However, it is also important to note that there is a difference between deontological ethics and moral absolutism.[5] Deontologists who are also moral absolutists believe that some actions are wrong no matter what consequences follow from them. Immanuel Kant, for example, famously argued that it is always wrong to lie – even if a murderer is asking for the location of a potential victim.[6] Deontologists who are not moral absolutists, such as W.D. Ross, hold that the consequences of an action such as lying may sometimes make lying the right thing to do. Kant's and Ross's theories are discussed in more detail below..../// Ross’s criticism of Utilitarianism is that it offers too simple a picture of our ethical lives. [Utilitarianism] says, in effect, that the only morally significant relation in which my neighbors stand to me is that of being possible beneficiaries of my action. They do stand in this relation to me, and this relation is morally significant. But they may also stand to me in the relation of promisee to promiser, of creditor to debtor, of wife to husband, of child to parent, of friend to friend, of fellow countryman to fellow countryman, and the like…; and each of these relations is the foundation of a prima facie duty, which is more

en.wikipedia.org/...Deontological_ethics - Preview

ethics deontology ross

However, Nagel believes that individuals should be judged with personal morals keeping in mind the role of personal intuitions instead of adopting an impersonal approach to make any judgments regarding the actions and events occurred by individuals beyond

www.termpapergenie.com/thomas.html - Preview

nagel "moral luck" morality ethics action

Retributive justice is a theory of justice that considers that proportionate punishment is a morally acceptable response to crime, regardless of whether the punishment causes any tangible benefits.n the early period of all systems of law the redress of wr

en.wikipedia.org/...Retributive_justice - Preview

ethics "retributive ethics" justice

John Rawls proposed a method, which he called the veil of ignorance, for determining which social customs were just and which were unjust. The veil of ignorance criterion is as follows: a rule is just if everyone would agree to it given that they were made ignorant of their position in society. That is, the just society would be chosen by people who had set aside considerations of their own gender, wealth, race, parentage, ect. Ideally this rule eliminates personal bias from the choice and thus guarantees the fairness of rules.

onphilosophy.wordpress.com/...beyond-the-veil-of-ignorance - Preview

veil of ignorance rawls fairness justice ethics values

Justice as Fairness is the phrase used by the philosopher John Rawls to refer to his distinctive theory of justice. It is also the title of an essay on the subject written in 1958. Justice as Fairness consists of two principles: First, each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with similar liberty for others. Second, "Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: (a) They are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and (b), they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society."[1] The first of these two principles is known as the liberty principle, while the second half, reflecting the idea that inequality is only justified if it is to the advantage of those who are less well-off, is known as the difference principle.

Rawls argues that the two principles would be chosen by representative parties in the original position — a thought experiment in which the parties are to choose among principles of justice to order the basic structure of society from behind a veil of ignorance — depriving the representatives of information about the particular characteristics (such as wealth and natural abilities) of the parties that they represent. Justice as Fairness is developed by Rawls in his now classic book, A Theory of Justice.

en.wikipedia.org/...Justice_as_Fairness - Preview

fairness rawls theories of justice ethics

Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory.

Hobbes is remembered today for his work on political philosophy, although he contributed to a diverse array of fields, including history, geometry, physics of gases, theology, ethics, general philosophy, and political science. But nonetheless Hobbes's account of human nature as self-interested cooperation has proved to be an enduring theory in the field of philosophical anthropology.

en.wikipedia.org/...Thomas_Hobbes - Preview

ethics philosophy hobbes biography

Moore's non-naturalism comprised two main theses. One was the realist thesis that moral and more generally normative judgements – like many of his contemporaries, Moore did not distinguish the two — are objectively true or false. The other was the autonomy-of-ethics thesis that moral judgements are sui generis, neither reducible to nor derivable from non-moral, that is, scientific or metaphysical judgements. It follows that our knowledge of moral truths is intuitive, in the sense that it is not arrived at by inference from non-moral truths but rests on our recognizing certain moral propositions as self-evident.////
In Moore’s formulation, that action is right that produces the greatest good. A good for a greater number of people is itself a greater good. /////////

The other was its testing for a state's intrinsic value by the “method of isolation,” which involves asking whether a universe containing only that state and no other would be good (Principia Ethica 142, 145-47, 236, 256); the point of this method was precisely to insulate judgements of intrinsic value from facts about a state's external relations. Moore's strict view was adopted by some later writers such as Ross, while others argued that a better theory of value results if intrinsic goodness can depend on some relations. But Moore was the first to raise this issue clearly.

plato.stanford.edu/...moore-moral - Preview

moore ethics value good philosophy intrinsic value isolation

The ethic of reciprocity or the Golden Rule is a fundamental moral value which simply means "treat others as you would like to be treated." It is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights, though it is not without its critics.

Ethical teaching interprets the Golden Rule as mutual respect for one's neighbour (rather than as a deontological or consequentialist rule). A key element of the golden rule is that a person attempting to live by this rule treats all people, not just members of his or her in-group with consideration. The golden rule, with roots in a wide range of world cultures, is well suited to be a standard to which different cultures could appeal in resolving conflicts. Principal philosophers and religious figures have stated it in different ways.////////

a principle that has appeared in one version or another in various cultures for millennia (Egypt, 2000 B.C.; the Zoroastrians, 700 B.C.; Confucius, 500 B.C.; Hinduism, 200 B.C.; the Jewish and Christian traditions).

en.wikipedia.org/...Ethic_of_reciprocity - Preview

ethics religion philosophy peace culture reciprocity school

Edward Osborne Wilson (born June 10, 1929) is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity), theorist (consilience, biophilia), and naturalist (conservationism). His biological specialty is myrmecology, a branch of entomology.

Wilson is known for his career as a scientist, his advocacy for environmentalism, and his secular-humanist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.[1]

******************************************Wilson defines sociobiology as "the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior". By applying the evolutionary principles that went a long way to explaining the behavior of the social insects to understanding the social behavior of other animals, including humans, Wilson established sociobiology as a new scientific field. He argued that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity and environmental stimuli and past experiences, and that free will is an illusion. He has referred to the biological basis of behaviour as the "genetic leash."[2] The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution. This theory and research proved to be seminal, controversial, and influential.[3]

The controversy of sociobiological research is in how it applies to humans. The theory established a scientific argument for rejecting the common doctrine of tabula rasa, which holds that human beings are born without any innate mental content and that culture functions to increase human knowledge and aid in survival and success. In the final chapter of the book Sociobiology and in the full text of his Pulitzer Prize-winning On Human Nature, Wilson argues that the human mind is shaped as much by genetic inheritance as it is by culture (if not more). There are limits on just how much influence social and environmental factors can have in altering human behavior.********************************

en.wikipedia.org/...Edward_Osborne_Wilson - Preview

wilson sociobiology ethics cooperation

Darius I the Great (c. 549 BC 486 BC; Old Persian:

en.wikipedia.org/...Darius_I_of_Persia - Preview

darius ethics biography persia ancient

Richard Brandt (1910-1997) was an American philosopher of the utilitarian tradition in moral philosophy. He spent much of his career at the University of Michigan, together with Charles Stevenson and William K. Frankena (1908-1994), and served as Chairman of the philosophy department. The expressivist moral philosopher Allan Gibbard has mentioned his great intellectual debt to Brandt.[1]

He wrote Ethical Theory[2], an influential textbook in the field. He defended a version of rule-utilitarianism in "Toward a credible form of utilitarianism" (1963) and performed cultural-anthropological studies in Hopi Ethics (1954). In A Theory of the Good and the Right[3], Brandt proposed a "reforming definition" of rationality, that one is rational if one's preferences are such that they survive cognitive psychotherapy in terms of all relevant information and logical criticism. He argued also that the morality such rational persons would accept would be a form of utilitarianism.

Brandt believed that moral rules should be considered in sets which he called moral codes. A moral code is justified when it is the optimal code that, if adopted and followed, would maximise the public good more than any alternative code would. The codes may be society-wide standards or special codes for a profession like engineering.

en.wikipedia.org/...Richard_B._Brandt - Preview

brandt anthropology ethics values

The concept of relativism also has importance both for philosophers and for anthropologists in another way. In general, anthropologists engage in descriptive relativism, whereas philosophers engage in normative relativism, although there is some overlap (for example, descriptive relativism can pertain to concepts, normative relativism to truth).\n\n////////////Descriptive relativism assumes that certain cultural groups have different modes of thought, standards of reasoning, and so forth, and it is the anthropologist's task to describe, but not to evaluate the validity of these principles and practices of a cultural group\n\n///////////Normative relativism concerns normative or evaluative claims that modes of thought, standards of reasoning, or the like are only right or wrong relative to a framework. ‘Normative’ is meant in a general sense, applying to a wide range of views; in the case of beliefs, for example, normative correctness equals truth. This does not mean, of course, that framework-relative correctness or truth is always clear, the first challenge being to explain what it amounts to in any given case (e.g., with respect to concepts, truth, epistemic norm


(((((((((((((((
What is called ethical relativism is often termed meta-ethical relativism. What is called prescriptive relativism is often termed normative relativism.

en.wikipedia.org/Relativism - Preview

relativism ethics culture

Usury (pronounced /ˈjuːʒəri/, comes from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest", from the Latin usura "interest") originally meant the charging of interest on loans. This would have included charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change. After countries legislated to limit the rate of interest on loans, usury came to mean the interest above the lawful rate. In common usage today, the word means the charging of unreasonable or relatively high rates of interest. As such, the term is largely derived from Abrahamic religious principles and Riba is the corresponding Islamic term. The primary focus in this article is on the Christian tradition.

The pivotal change in the English-speaking world seems to have come with the permission to charge interest on lent money: particularly the Act 'In restraint of usury' of Henry VIII in England in 1545 (see book references).

It can be argued that usury—borrowing money at interest—was a genuine vice in the context of the medieval seignorial system (Alasdair MacIntyre)

en.wikipedia.org/Usury - Preview

usury ethics morality moral finance economics reagan

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Marquis de Sade (June 2, 1740 – December 2, 1814) (pronounced IPA: [maʁki dəsad]) was a French aristocrat, revolutionary and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography. He was a philosopher of extreme freedom (or at least licentiousness), unrestrained by morality, religion or law, with the pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and in an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life; eleven years in Paris (10 of which were spent in the Bastille) a month in Conciergerie, 2 years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, 3 years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton insane asylum. Much of his writing was done during his imprisonment. The term "sadism" is derived from his name.///////////

"Ethical relativism: An action right in one culture may be wrong in another; there are no universal moral truths. "

en.wikipedia.org/...Marquis_de_Sade - Preview

sade truth philosophy ethics relativism

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French pronounced [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]) (February 28, 1533–September 13, 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes[1] and autobiography — and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written...//////


***************************************************************************

There are countries where, except for his wife and children, no one speaks to the king except through a tube…Where they cook the body of the deceased and then crush it until a sort of pulp is formed, which they mix with their wine, and drink it.
In short, to my way of thinking, there is nothing that custom will not or cannot do… (Montaigne, “Of Custom”)

en.wikipedia.org/Montaigne - Preview

montaigne relativism ethics biography