Ethics and Moral Philosophy
Ethics questions on this exam divide into three layers, and marks are lost by answering at the wrong layer: metaethics (what moral claims mean and whether they can be true), normative ethics (which theory generates the right verdict), and applied ethics (the case in front of you).
Normative theories
- Consequentialism: act and rule utilitarianism; hedonic versus preference accounts of welfare; demandingness and integrity objections.
- Deontology: Kant's categorical imperative in its universal-law and humanity-as-end formulas; the doctrine of double effect (intention/foresight, proportionality); Ross's prima facie duties.
- Virtue ethics: eudaimonia, phronesis, the doctrine of the mean; the guidance objection.
- Contractualism: Scanlon's principle of justifiability to others.
Metaethics
Cognitivism holds moral sentences express beliefs and can be true; non-cognitivism (emotivism, prescriptivism, expressivism) denies this. Moral realism adds that some such truths are mind-independent; error theory (Mackie) accepts the truth-aptness but denies the truths, citing queerness and relativity. Related issues: moral motivation (Humean versus anti-Humean), moral luck (Nagel, Williams), and responsibility.
Worked example
A runaway trolley will kill five; you can divert it, killing one. Utilitarian verdict: divert, because 5 > 1. Variant: push a fat bystander off a bridge to stop the trolley. Most act-utilitarians still say push; double effect says diverting is a foreseen side effect while pushing uses the person as a means, so only the first is permissible. Kant's humanity formula forbids treating the pushed man merely as a means, so both need independent justification. Show the verdict, the principle used, and the counter-consideration, in that order.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating utilitarianism as the default view rather than one contested theory.
- Collapsing non-cognitivism (a metaethical thesis) into relativism (a normative one).
- Using double effect without specifying intention, means and proportionality.
- Ignoring that Kant's imperative also condemns maxims of manipulation, not just killing.