
Ethics in America:
DANTES Final Exam Outline
Each topic will be covered in class.
Ethical Traditions (43% - 45%)
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Greek views:
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Thucydides: Wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War.
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Socrates: felt that ethics was born of human conflict.
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Plato: Believed the organization of the soul of a good person is similar to the organization of the social classes in an ideal society.
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Aristotle: The good for which all humans aspire is happiness, which is the activity of the soul.
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Religious traditions: The morally right action is the one that God commands.
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Moral law:
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Epictetus: Our moral responsibility lies in the things we control.
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Aquinas: Put forth the notion of eternal law as the road map for ethics.
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Hobbes: He believed that all acts are ultimately self-serving.
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Locke: Everybody must be moved by a desire for his or her own happiness or pleasure.
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Rousseau: in an ideal society, no one above rules.
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Jefferson: Believed moral philosophy is found in the evidence offered by human nature.
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Kant: Divided moral philosophy into two domains, that of justice or law on the one hand, and that of ethics or virtue on the other.
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Royce: Social groups own their own values.
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King: Moral responsibility to obey laws that are just.
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Rawls: Envisioned a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights cooperating within an egalitarian economic system.
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Nozick: Best known for his version of an "externalist" theory of knowledge.
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Consequential ethics: Epicurus, Smith, Bentham, Mill, Rand. Consequentialists hold that choices, acts, and/or intentions are to be morally assessed solely by the states of affairs they bring about.
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Feminist ethics: Gilligan, Noddings. Feminist ethics was an attempt to revise, reformulate, or rethink traditional ethics to the extent it depreciates or devalues women's moral experience.
Ethical Analysis of Issues and Practical Applications (55% - 57%)
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Morality: Issues of right and wrong as they relate to an individual's religious and/or cultural belief.
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Relationships: The most fundamental and dependable relationship that one person has with another person.
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Sexuality: Religious texts that are 1800-3000 years old still govern and guide a large part of the population on matters of sexuality.
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Life and death issues: Fundamental principles that guide our understanding on issues such as saving a life and euthanasia.
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Economic inequity, poverty, and equal opportunity: Lack of economic equality and how it relates to living conditions and opportunities.
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Racism and affirmative action: Issues on discrimination based on race and attempts at providing equal opportunities through legislation and policies.
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Punishment: Checking the power of the individual so that punishment is a means of repairing social order and not a means of satisfying and individuals need for reparation.
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War and peace: Justifying war and the politics of peace.
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Life-centered and human-centered ethics: The rights and duties of the individual as a person as opposed to the individual as a part of the environment.
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Human rights: Fundamental rights of all peoples that are universally protected
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Biomedical ethics: Issues of right and wrong in medicine and biomedical science
