Moral Disputes & Ethics Flashcards

Wrong / unjustified — because it robs humanity of the chance to exchange error for truth (and even true beliefs need challenge to remain living knowledge).

Without challenge, true beliefs become dead dogmas — people hold them without understanding grounds, and lose the ability to defend them.

A proportional / equality-based retributivism that rejects the death penalty as inconsistent with respect for persons (often framed as opposing capital punishment while accepting desert-based punishment in principle).

The theory that punishment is justified because offenders deserve it in proportion to their wrongdoing (backward-looking desert), not only for deterrence or reform.

The moral theory that right actions maximize overall happiness/utility (greatest good for the greatest number).

Duty-based ethics: some acts are right or wrong regardless of consequences (rules, rights, respect for persons).

Power can be rightfully exercised over individuals against their will only to prevent harm to others — not for their own good alone (paternalism limit).

Act utilitarianism judges each act by its consequences; rule utilitarianism judges acts by rules that would maximize utility if generally followed.

Utilitarianism could justify punishing the innocent if it maximized utility; retributivism forbids punishment without desert.

“An eye for an eye” — the idea that punishment should match the crime in kind or severity.

The view that moral truth is relative to cultures or individuals rather than objective/universal.

Ethics focused on character and flourishing (eudaimonia); right action flows from virtues that hit the mean between extremes.

Negative rights require others not interfere (e.g., free speech); positive rights require others provide something (e.g., education, welfare).

No — false opinions still have value: refuting them strengthens understanding of the truth.