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?
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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?
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Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, a war of all against all without sovereign authority.- What are natural rights according to Locke?
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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?
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A hypothetical situation where people choose justice principles behind a veil of ignorance, not knowing their place in society.- What is Rawls' difference principle?
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Inequalities are just only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society.- How does Nozick view distributive justice?
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A distribution is just if it arose through just processes, regardless of whether the final pattern is equal.- What is negative liberty?
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Freedom from interference or coercion, the absence of obstacles to doing what one chooses.- What is positive liberty?
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The capacity and power to do what one wants, the ability to achieve one's goals.- What is civil disobedience?
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Deliberate, public violation of an unjust law, done peacefully with willingness to accept legal consequences.- What is the general will according to Rousseau?
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The collective will of a society, expressing what is best for the common good.- How do utilitarians and Rawls differ on political justice?
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Utilitarians judge justice by maximizing overall well-being; Rawls requires fairness principles chosen behind a veil of ignorance.- What is moral equality?
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The principle that all persons have equal moral worth and deserve equal consideration regardless of talents or circumstances.- What is egalitarianism in political ethics?
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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?
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The view that individual liberty and property rights are paramount and the state should be minimal.- What is communitarianism?
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The view that community and social goods are primary and that individuals are partly constituted by their social roles.
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