Moral Philosophy: Emotivism, Utilitarianism, Kantian Ethics, and More
Defining Moral Emotivism
Ethics under which the foundation of moral experience is not found in reason but in the sense that the actions and qualities of people awaken in us. We use the name of moral emotivism to characterize the position of Hume, but his writing is not on moral emotivism. He opposes moral rationalism advocated by most previous philosophers, particularly by the Greek philosophers.
Definition of Moral Utilitarianism
With the generic name of utilitarianism is cataloged a set of ethical theories for whom the criterion for happiness (eudaimonia) and the purpose of moral actions is useful.
What Actions Are Considered Moral for Kant?
Kant argues that theoretical reason cannot dispense with sensitive data or pretend to go beyond these data if you want to get lost in pointless, rambling, and contradictory. But consider, Kant, not the case with the practical use we make of the reason for making moral decisions. The theoretical use of reason tells us how things are, the practical use how human behavior should be.
Common Features of Sophist Thought
- Relativism: The doctrine that the absence of absolute truths.
- Skepticism: The doctrine that states that if there are absolute truths – universal and necessary – it is impossible for man to get to know them. This attitude, derived from epistemological subjectivism, is opposed to any kind of knowledge that is presented with claims to universal validity. Untying awareness of language from reality.
- Conventionalism: The doctrine that morality, religion, society, etc. are the product of a convention, an agreement among men.
Difference Between Pyrrhonian and Methodical Skepticism
- Departure:
- Pyrrhonian Skepticism: Lack of epistemological prejudices.
- Methodical Skepticism: Belief in the existence of absolute truths.
- Development: Research – subjecting all supposed truth to a thorough analysis – the existence of absolute truths. (Both Pyrrhonian and Methodical Skepticism)
- Conclusion:
- Pyrrhonian Skepticism: There are no absolute truths.
- Methodical Skepticism: The discovery of some absolute truth.
Difference Between Cynicism and Other Post-Socratic Ethics
One feature that distinguishes cynicism from other movements is precisely the importance given to asceticism, the continued practice of mental and physical exercise as the way to achieve a state appropriate frame of mind to achieve self-sufficiency, which relieves them of the unexpected and to harden them unmoved by “existential enemies” such as hunger, cold, and poverty, which depend on them. This attitude is akin to Stoicism, but their shame is gone again.
Brave New World: Similarities and Differences with 1984
- Similarities: Both can show us how to live in delusion and sustain a society undergoing a pattern of lies and controls.
- Differences: In 1984, fears abound – existent war – and the manipulation of truth as an element of domination, while Huxley’s book appeals to the domination by programming stimuli at birth and during the first years of life, to form men-tools.
Nietzsche’s Critique of Judeo-Christian Morality
Nietzsche believes Judeo-Christian morality leads to a bias against life, in the sense that it seeks to destroy some human instincts, negating them altogether, which is a mistake because, as Freud would say, the repressed always returns. Nietzsche drops this in his work The Origin of Tragedy, more specifically in the section of the Dionysian vision of the world.
Freud’s Contribution to Twentieth-Century Thought
The most significant contribution Freud has made to modern thought is to try to give the concept of the unconscious a scientific status (not shared by several branches of science and psychology). His concepts of unconscious, unconscious desires, and repression were revolutionary, proposing a mind divided into layers, to some extent dominated by primitive desires which are hidden to consciousness and manifested in slips and dreams.
Difference Between Marx and Nietzsche on the Course of History
One of the big differences between Nietzsche and Marx is that the former tried to find explanations for social conflicts in an alleged individualistic and selfish human nature, which limited any possibility of social reconstruction. In contrast, for Marx, the determination of historical events was not fatally marked by individual causes, but eminently social, including highlighting the struggle of classes. For Nietzsche, man’s weakness has been the cause of revolution and sentimentalism. While for Marx, revolutions were the result of class struggle and expression, ultimately, the conflict between productive forces and production relations.