Exploring Aristotelian Classification, Ethical Theories, and Scientific Development
According to Aristotle’s Classification of Actions and Responsibility
There are three types of actions according to Aristotle’s classification, each involving different levels of responsibility:
- Mixed Actions: These are actions performed out of fear of a greater evil.
- Culpable Actions of Ignorance: These occur when an individual has the means to learn about the circumstances that would make their action culpable, but chooses not to do so.
- Voluntary Actions: These are actions performed by an individual with the clear intention of achieving a specific end.
Ethics vs. Morality
Morality (from Latin mos, moris = custom) is the set of standards or principles (not necessarily legal) concerning human conduct. Morality dictates what should be, not merely what is. Ethics (from Greek ethos = habit), however, is the philosophical reflection on morality. Attempting to justify moral standards is the specific role of ethics. As Schopenhauer noted, “to preach morality is easy, to justify it is difficult.” Wittgenstein later paraphrased this sentiment: “To preach morality is easy. To ground it: impossible.”
Philosophical Positions Denying Universal Values: Moral Relativism
Moral relativism asserts that principles of right and wrong are specific to particular groups and do not apply universally. Different types of moral relativism include:
- Cultural Relativism: Morality depends entirely on different cultures.
- Contextualism: The rightness or wrongness of an action depends on its context.
- Ethnocentrism: Actions can only be justified to those who share our way of life.
- Skepticism: A consequence of relativism, suggesting we cannot know if something is truly right or wrong.
- Subjectivism: Truth and morality are primarily determined by the individual’s subjective experience.
- Emotivism: Moral judgments are expressions of emotions intended to persuade others to feel the same way.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Kohlberg identified three levels of moral development, each correlated with age:
- Level I: Pre-conventional Morality (4-10 years)
- Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
- Stage 2: Self-Interest Orientation
- Level II: Conventional Morality (10-13 years)
- Stage 3: Good Boy-Good Girl Orientation
- Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation
- Level III: Post-conventional Morality (13+ years)
- Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation
- Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation
Epicureanism vs. Utilitarianism
Epicureanism emphasizes organizing one’s life around maximizing intense and lasting pleasures while minimizing pain. Utilitarianism, on the other hand, is an ethical theory based on three premises: intrinsic value lies in what is valuable to individuals, the best state of affairs maximizes the sum of what is valuable, and our actions should aim to achieve this best state of affairs. Bentham treats all forms of happiness as equal, while Mill argues that intellectual and moral pleasures are superior to physical pleasures. Mill distinguishes between happiness and satisfaction, asserting that “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
Kant’s Critique of Material Ethics
Kant’s three main criticisms of material ethics are:
- Material ethics are empirical.
- Their precepts are hypothetical or conditional.
- They are heteronomous.
Kant’s Formal Ethics
Formal ethics argues that a formal approach, focusing on the universalizability of a maxim, determines whether an action is good or bad. Key aspects of Kant’s formal ethics include Kantian rigor (duty for duty’s sake and the universal nature of good or bad actions), the defense of autonomy, and the use of categorical imperatives.
Three Principles of Axiology
- All values are either positive or negative.
- There is a relationship between value and duty.
- Values are arranged in a strict hierarchy, intuitively grasped through emotion. Moral good is choosing a higher value over a lower one, and evil is the opposite.
Sorting Values
| Category | Values |
|---|---|
| Useful | Expensive-Cheap, Abundant-Scarce |
| Vital | Sick-Healthy, Strong-Weak |
| Intellectual | Knowledge-Error |
| Spiritual/Moral | Good-Bad, Just-Unjust, Fair-Unfair |
| Aesthetic | Beautiful-Ugly, Elegant-Inelegant |
| Religious | Sacred-Profane |
Moral, Immoral, and Amoral
Moral refers to beliefs and norms guiding actions and providing a sense of right and wrong. Immoral describes actions against moral principles. Amoral refers to lacking or not understanding morality.
Scientific Progress According to Kuhn
Kuhn argues that scientific progress is revolutionary, not merely cumulative. Scientific revolutions involve paradigm shifts, where an old paradigm is replaced by a new, incompatible one.
Contemporary vs. Same Generation
Being contemporary means sharing the same historical period, while being in the same generation means belonging to a group of people born around the same time.
History of Philosophy vs. Philosophy of History
The history of philosophy studies philosophy as a specific type of knowledge reflecting on itself. The philosophy of history examines the development and ways humans create history, sometimes speculating on the existence of a teleological goal or purpose in history.
Important Philosophical Movements of Modernity (17th-18th Centuries)
- Rationalism (Descartes): Knowledge should be based on reason, as senses can deceive.
- Empiricism (Hume): Sensory experience is the reliable source of knowledge.
- Transcendental Idealism (Kant): Knowledge requires both experience and reason.
Degrees of Knowledge
- Opinion: A belief considered true without objective or subjective justification.
- Belief: A subjectively justified belief lacking objective justification.
- Knowledge: A belief justified both subjectively and objectively.
Is Knowledge Possible? Philosophical Perspectives
- Dogmatism: Humans can know reality through direct intuition or conceptual representations.
- Skepticism: Reliable knowledge is impossible.
- Subjectivism/Relativism: Truth depends on culture, age, or social group.
- Pragmatism: Truth is what is useful.
- Criticism: Knowledge is possible but limited by our cognitive faculties.
- Perspectivism (Ortega y Gasset): Reality can be known by combining different perspectives, but absolute truth is beyond human reach.
Hypothetical-Deductive Method
This scientific method involves:
- Observing a phenomenon that current theories cannot explain.
- Formulating assumptions about the phenomenon.
- Creating a testable hypothesis and deriving its implications.
- Testing the implications through experimentation.
- Accepting the hypothesis as a law after repeated testing, but retaining its hypothetical nature.
- Unifying established laws into a general theory.
Explanation and Understanding
Explanation is clearly and comprehensively expressing and describing a concept, object, feeling, phenomenon, or event. Understanding is a mental process of creating an image, idea, or concept from given data.
Social Sciences and Understanding
Social sciences aim to understand human behavior in society by considering its subsystems (economic, political, socio-cultural) and how they affect individuals and communities.
Modern Notion of Science in the Renaissance
The Renaissance (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo) shaped the modern notion of science. Physics and astronomy developed a research method characterized by:
- Mathematization of science and nature.
- A mechanistic view of nature.
- Focus on exploiting nature, not just contemplating it.
- Experimentation as testing and applying mathematics.
- The goal of discovering laws of behavior, expressed mathematically.