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Do we owe an ethical obligation to 10,000 years into the future?
What does this comic mean?
What does this mean?
or this?
Does this convey danger?
How would your group transmit a warning about this nuclear site 10,000 years in the future using AOK/WOK? Be prepared to share with the class.
Ethics Terms & Concepts
Ethics à the systematic study of right and wrong behavior, or the study of moral choices. Ethics has three branches:
ü Meta ethics à concerned with the definition of ethical terms, the search for ethical truth.
ü Normative ethics à concerned with how we “ought” to live, theories of correct behavior
ü Applied ethicsà How moral outcomes can be achieved in practical situations. In TOK we’ll be concerned with Normative and Applied ethics.
In TOK we'll be concerned primarily with normative ethics – theories of what we “ought” to do, how we should determine a moral course of action. Here are four normative theories:
Deontological Theories
Focused on living up to obligations or following rules.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
- “Act only according to that maxim
whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."[1]
Teleological / Consequentialist Theories
Focused on morally desirable consequences or outcomes
Utilitarianism
- The proper course of action is one
which maximizes the overall “happiness”
Virtue Ethics
Focused on the character of the person making the moral decision.
- The proper course of action is that which is chosen by an ethically superior person.
Pragmatic Ethics
Focused on the social context of the decision.
- The proper course of action is that which results when society is allowed to advance morally, in much the same way we advance scientifically.
Ethical case studies
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