Ethical questions about the state, liberty, and social cooperation from an intro ethics course.
29 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What is the social contract theory?
- Political authority arises from an agreement among people to form a state and establish rules for cooperation.
- In Hobbes' state of nature, what is human life like?
- Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, a war of all against all without sovereign authority.
- What are natural rights according to Locke?
- Inherent rights to life, liberty, and property that precede government and that government exists to protect.
- What is the original position in Rawls' theory of justice?
- A hypothetical situation where people choose justice principles behind a veil of ignorance, not knowing their place in society.
- What is Rawls' difference principle?
- Inequalities are just only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society.
- How does Nozick view distributive justice?
- A distribution is just if it arose through just processes, regardless of whether the final pattern is equal.
- What is negative liberty?
- Freedom from interference or coercion, the absence of obstacles to doing what one chooses.
- What is positive liberty?
- The capacity and power to do what one wants, the ability to achieve one's goals.
- What is civil disobedience?
- Deliberate, public violation of an unjust law, done peacefully with willingness to accept legal consequences.
- What is the general will according to Rousseau?
- The collective will of a society, expressing what is best for the common good.
- How do utilitarians and Rawls differ on political justice?
- Utilitarians judge justice by maximizing overall well-being; Rawls requires fairness principles chosen behind a veil of ignorance.
- What is moral equality?
- The principle that all persons have equal moral worth and deserve equal consideration regardless of talents or circumstances.
- What is egalitarianism in political ethics?
- The view that equality is intrinsically valuable and that justice should aim to make conditions more equal among people.
- What is libertarianism in political ethics?
- The view that individual liberty and property rights are paramount and the state should be minimal.
- What is communitarianism?
- The view that community and social goods are primary and that individuals are partly constituted by their social roles.
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