Key Terms and Concepts - Unit 1

AT A GLANCE – UNIT 1 KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

This is not an exhaustive list of all of the information you will be responsible for on your test this Monday (2/7), but I hope that it will provide you with a quick and clear account of some of the key ideas that were covered in class so far.

1) Principle of Utility: Act such that you produce seek to produce the greatest amount of happiness (over unhappiness), making sure that one gives equal consideration to the relative happiness (or unhappiness) of everyone who (within reason) stands to be effected by our action(s). In other words, one should act so as to try to produce the greatest amount of happiness (or the least amount of unhappiness) for the greatest number of people, taking into equal consideration all of those who stand to be effected by our action(s).

2) Principle of Respect for Persons: Act such that never treat another person merely as a means to your own ends, but always as an end in themselves. In other words, we shouldn’t merely use other people for our own wants and desires but, rather, always take into account the hopes, beliefs, and goals (their personal projects) of those we interact with in our lives.

3) Moral principles are: Abstract, Perfect, Absolute, Universal, Ideal, Eternal, etc.

4) Moral rules are: Concrete, Imperfect, Changing, Particular, Empirical, Finite/Limited, etc.

What follows is material that I wasn’t able to cover in class that might be of interest to you all (information that you WILL NOT be tested on).

1) The Principle of Equality is one of the four principles of social morality. While you do need to know the principle, here are four aspects of the principle of equality.
a) Procedural Equality: this sets a minimal limit on what is required in the service of promoting equality
b) Equality in Application: this sets minimal limits on what is required in the service of implementing laws. In other words, laws must be applied equally and rules are put into place to set minimal limits in this direction.
c) Equality of Opportunity: here we seek to set minimal limits on what is required in the service of insuring equal opportunity to common goods and services.
d) Equality of Results: sometimes inequalities exist beyond mere opportunity, sometimes there exists inequality of results. For example, on average women earn less money in the work place for performing similar if not identical tasks as their male counterparts. As a result, activists today seek to put into place rules that would correct for such inequalities.

2) General Welfare: According to this principle of social morality, the different levels of government should promote the ‘common good’ or ‘public interest.’ In other words, the government (or society) has a duty to its citizens to provide basic goods and services like public schools and libraries, civic infrastructure, environmental protections, and other such services. In addition, the government has a duty to place limits on our individual freedom in order to promote the general welfare. In other words, a government (or society) has a duty restrict our actions for the sake of the common good. So, we have rules concerning proper conduct that we must obey in both our public and our private lives. Determining the scope and extent of the government’s involvement in our lives, both public and private.

3) Here are some issues related to the Principle of the General Welfare:
a) Social paternalism: under the principle of paternalism, a government or society is justified to act as a surrogate “parent” for its members.
b) Public morality: according to this principle, a government or society is justified in limiting our individual freedoms in order to uphold and promote a tacit moral code within society.
c) Public cost: according to this principle, a government or society is justified in limiting our individual freedoms in order to curb social cost.