Study guide questions

1) In my opinion children should learn values in elementary school. I think this because a child spends most of his or her time at school and they are put in situations around others that they will need to learn and practice things like sharing and honesty. Although the teacher would be teaching instead of the parent, the values they would be learning would be beneficial to the child and if the parents don’t like these values then they can teach their child when they get home from school.
2) Moral issues:
It is okay to lie.
It is okay to have an abortion.
It is okay to cheat.
Logical Fallacies with these three:
It is okay to lie to spare someone’s feelings.
It is okay to have an abortion if the mother was raped.
It is okay to cheat if you only did it once and no one got hurt.
3) In my view evil does exist. And to me there is a difference between being evil and doing evil. Someone who does evil may be someone who intentionally hurts someone for his or her own benefit maybe once or twice. But someone who is evil I feel is someone who continually lives their lives trying to hurt others. Whether it be saying hurtful things or committing murders. Also I don’t think that just become someone commits a mass shooting that they are necessarily “Evil” because I don’t know them personally and I don’t know if it was just a moment of crazy or if that is something they do on a daily basis.
4) Few philosophers are interested in talking about good and evil because there is “an underlying assumption that good and evil are religious concepts” and they tend to “steer clear of religious connections to ethics.” Another reason is talking about it would imply that they took sides and they engage themselves in what some would call moralizing and they try to avoid that.
5) Yes I think to some extent morality is hardwired into every human being, whether they choose to ignore it or pursuit it, I think that is its there and what that person thinks is “moral” is up to their interpretation. Damasio feels that we are born with a certain part of our brain affecting moral decisions. Also areas of that brain that let us think about other people’s lives with empathy.
6) The job of philosophy as it related to ethics is using fictional storied to explore moral issues rather than rely on little pre-digested philosophical examples or real life events.
7) The difference between ethics and morality is morals are the rules we live by and ethics are the reasoning behind our morals and why we do the things we do.
8) The contribution Socrates made to ethics is the concept of critical thinking instead of emphasizing being an obedient citizen.
9) An action being legal doesn’t necessarily make it good. For example, women didn’t used to be able to vote because they were not respected as much as a white male but not as we look back the thought seems crazy and very wrong. Also abortion is legal but the act of killing a baby is very wrong.
10) The foundation of my ethics at this point of my life would mostly stem from religion and what my parents taught me. Things that God says is right or wrong such as adultery, lying, cheating etc. Yes I am comfortable with this because I still believe in God and the bible and what he has to say about how I live my life. There are no changes I would make to improve my outlook because I believe that my foundation is very strong and I have a very good knowledge and understanding as