Session 2: Ethical Theory and the Environment. 

Students participating in class sessions will, on a weekly basis, prepare their homework assignments and post their responses in Drop box 2 on the course lesson board by 5:00 p.m. on the Sunday evening immediately following each on-campus class meeting.  However, all reading assigned for each class session must be completed prior to the beginning of each class meeting to insure that all students are prepared to participate in the class discussion.

Video Assignment 

2.    What is ethics? What are "ecological ethics"?

3.    Distinguish between realism, relativism and subjectivism. What philosophers are associated with each of these concepts (you may have to go to the web and do some research to answer this question completely).

4.    Explain the naturalistic fallacy to me.

5.    What is the difference between ecological and religious ethics (Yeah! you might have to research this!). 

6.    Explain the dominion thesis and the stewardship thesis associated with the Judeo-Christian tradition. Are there any problems with these ethics from an ecological perspective? Are there any arguments to be made in their favor as ecological ethics (Go ahead, give it a shot!).

7.    Define managerialism, humanism, statism, modernism, and economism.

8.    What does the term "secularism" imply?

9.    What is secular humanism and what threat does it pose to religious communities (That's right, another one for you to research!).

10. How do secular ethics differ from religious ethics?

11. What are virtue ethics?

12. What does the term "teleological" mean and what philosophers are associated with this term (more web research I think).

13. What is involved in Kant's categorical imperative?

14. Explain to me what is meant by the term deontological ethics and provide me an example.

15. How could happiness ever be incommensurable?

16. What does the term utlitarianism imply?

17. What is the animal liberation movement and what philosophers are behind it (more web work)?

18. Adam Smith asserts "We do not therefore thoroughly and heartily sympathize with the gratitude of one man towards another merely because this other has been the cause of his good fortune, unless he has been the cause of it from motives which we entirely go along with." What is Smith talking about in this case and who is the "benefactor" who engenders gratitude among those receiving the gifts of his/her largesse?

19. Smith then goes on to say that "if in the conduct of the benefactor there appears to have been no propriety, now beneficial soever its effects, it does not seem to demand or necessarily to require any proportional recompense." What is Smith saying here? Please explain.

20. Thereafter Smith asserts "In the same manner, we cannot at all sympathize with the resentment of one man against another, merely because this other has been the cause of his misfortune, unless he has been the cause of it from motives which we cannot enter into." Again, explain what Smith is talking about here and apply it to the situation of the BP Gulf Oil Spill off of the Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

21. Explain what Smith means when he speaks of "merit" and "demerit."

22. What is beneficence and what about it precludes it from being extorted by force?

23. Explain what Adam Smith meant when he talked about "justice."

24. In presenting his "theory of moral sentiments" Smith provides an illustration that suggests his philosophy regarding the place of animals in his ethical system. Accordingly he asserts "before any thing can be the proper object of gratitude or resentment, it must not only be the cause of pleasure or pain, it must likewise be capable of feeling them. Without this other quality, those passions cannot vent themselves with any sort of satisfaction upon it. As they are excited by the causes of pleasure and pain, so their gratification consists in retaliating those sensations upon what gave occasion to them; which it is to no purpose to attempt upon what has no sensibility. Animals, therefore, are less improper objects of gratitude and resentment than inanimated objects. The dog that bites, the ox that gores, are both of them punished. If they have been the causes of the death of any person, neither the public, nor the relations of the slain, can be satisfied, unless they are put to death in their turn: nor is this merely for the security of the living, but, in some measure, to revenge the injury of the dead. Those animals, on the contrary, that have been remarkably serviceable to their masters, become the objects of a very lively gratitude." Given this statement, how would you characterize the role of animals within Smith's model of capitalism.

25. Adam Smith regards the moral sentiments as the sufficient basis of moral judgment. In this regard his “moral sentiments” serve as the foundation for his sense of ethics. What are the positives and negatives associated with this ethical foundation?  

Video Discussion Questions:

Students participating in this class session will prepare their homework assignments and post their responses in Drop box 2 on the course lesson board by 5:00 p.m. on the Sunday evening immediately following each on-campus class meeting. However, all class readings must be completed prior to class convening to insure students can participate in class discussion.Pick seven questions between questions 1-19. These questions, followed by your answers is your video homework for this week.  Remember you are required to know the answers to each and every one of these questions for the Comprehensive Exam!

 

1.    What was Smith’s law of the invisible hand about? Please Explain.

2.    What was Smith’s law of unintended consequences about? Please Explain.

3.    What about Smith’s theories of paradigms? What can you tell me about this?

4.    Smith also had a theory of change and causation. Please Explain.

5.    How did Smith use analytical models and how did he apply conjectural history?

6.    Tell me about Smith’s “mechanistic” understanding about how forces in the world operate?

7.    What is Smith’s theory of the division of labor? Please Explain.

8.    What makes division of labor so efficient and productive (3 factors)?

9.    What was Smith’s theory in regard to the interaction of commerce and civility?

10. Describe what Smith considered “dour” about human nature.

11. Why does Smith assert that peace is a prerequisite for economic affluence and growth?

12. How did Smith explain the equilibrium in economic growth in the China of his era? (2 factors)

13. How did Smith explain the growth in both the number and size of towns and cities?

14. In Smith’s opinion, how did the middle class influence the wealth of a nation?

15. What did Smith mean by “easy taxation”?

16. How was the development of machinery and technology related to Smith’s division of labor?

17. How does Smith define wealth?

18. What does Smith mean by “the night watchman state”?

19. In what ways was Smith’s worldview of his era “pessimistic?”