Philosophy: Ethics and Morality

Ethics: systematic questioning and critical examination of the underlying principles of morality
Morality: customs including the customary behavior of a particular group of people, what is good and what is bad
Normative Ethics: answers what is good, pertains to certain norms or standards for goodness and badness
Meta-Ethics: questions the basis of assumptions proposed, why bad, why good
Applied Ethics: describes how to apply normative theories to specific issues

Sanctions: threatened penalty for disobeying a law
Customs: traditional and widely accepted way of behaving
Habits: settled or regular tendency which is hard to give up
Jean-Paul Sartre: "Man is condemned to be free", man is an unconstrained free moral agent
John Motherheads: Ethics: The Modern Conceptions of the Principles of Right; Morality = Freedom & Obligation

Moral Judgements = Moral Decisions
Making moral judgments is budgeting actions
Intellectual Choice: answers the question of what we ought to do according to a normative ethical system
Practical Choice: deals with how a person will act according to a given situation

Kant's Metaphysics: Phenomena (the thing as it appears to an observer) vs. Noumena (the thing-in-itself)
Deontological Ethics: based on duty, categorical imperative
Teleological Ethics: based on consequences, "the end justifies the means"
Utilitarianism: maximization of pleasure and the avoidance of pain to promote happiness
Jeremy Bentham: pleasure is quantifiable, introduced the concept of Hedonic Calculus
J.S. Mill: focused on the quality of pleasure, distinction between intellectual and physiological pleasure

Failure to recognize the vagueness of moral concepts
Failure to recognize the value-laden nature of many concepts which appear value-free
Uncritical use of emotive terms
Hasty generalizations
Faulty causality (Post Hoc Fallacy)
Rationalization: offering justifications or reasons to cover-up or clothe an already arrived at decision

Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology: study of that which appears, consciousness is intentional
Natural Attitude: stereotyping, adding prejudices and biases to our experiences
Bracketing/Epoché: suspension of judgments concerning the reality and existence of the world
Reduction: transcendental reduction, examining a phenomenon to identify its essential elements
Solipsism: asserts the self as the only certain reality

Self-consciousness: can never be achieved in isolation, product of our interaction with our world
The desire to be desired
Mutual recognition among conscious subjects is necessary for self-consciousness
Master and Slave: relationship of domination and subjugation
True Recognition: against domination and recognition, understanding of who we are as persons as we relate with others

Martin Buber's I and Thou: distinguishes between "I-Thou" and "I-It" modes of existence
I-Thou Relationship: genuine form of conversation, dialogue, recognizing the person as another distinct person
I-It Relationship: treating the other as an object or a tool
I-I Relationship: people whose world revolves around themselves, aim is to transform the other into their own likeness### Pre-Industrial Societies
Hunting and Gathering Societies:
- Simplest type of society
- Survives by hunting and gathering food
- Men hunt, women gather
- No permanent settlement, typically 30 people or less
- Egalitarian, decisions made by consensus
Pastoral Societies:
- Evolution of Hunter-Gatherer Society
- Discovered animal domestication
- Men herd larger stocks, women manage smaller stocks and food production
- Need to move to provide food for animals
- Typically 50-200 people
- Production of goods leads to trading, centralization of wealth and power
Horticultural Societies:
- Cultivate and nurture plants
- Limited technology, small land area
- Men clear land, women care for fruits and vegetables
- Trading occurs, leading to some families being superior
Agrarian Societies:
- Introduced new materials and methods for cultivating plants and animals (plow, wheel)
- Improved labor and production, used animals for travel and field work
- Led to innovations in water transportation, agricultural techniques, and establishment of the printing press

Emerged from continued innovations in agrarian societies
Factors that gave birth to industrial societies:
- Advancement in water transportation
- Further advancement in agricultural techniques and practices
- Establishment of the printing press
Characteristics:
- Source of energy comes from coal, petroleum, natural gas, and electricity
- Communication made easier with the invention of the telephone
- Led to wealth and power concentrated in fewer people (capitalists)
- Masses belonged to the working class, exploited by capitalists
- Labor Unions formed to fight for workers' welfare

Emerged in the 20th century
Result of efficiency in production, excess supply of goods
Culture of consumption established
Factors contributing to consumer society:
- Birth of printing press aided penetration of new products
- Advertising encouraged consumption
- Industrial Revolution drove people to towns and cities
Consequences:
- Oppression, alienation, and impoverishment of workers
- Labor Unions formed to challenge capitalists
- Awareness of labor power spread, leading to absenteeism and high turnover rates
- Henry Ford introduced Fordism, using labor specialization and a moving assembly line

Consumption changed by adding element of sign value in commodities
Sign values are elements added by manufacturers via advertising
Sign consumption: consumption of signs and meanings attached to commodities
The Society of Spectacle:
- Guy Debord argued that society has been reduced to sign or image relations
- Human life and relations are not authentic, and people are focused on having rather than being
Effects of sign consumption:
- Suppressed critical thinking
- Materialistic lifestyle
- Discrimination based on possessions

Due to excessive production and consumption
Characteristics:
- Throw-away practice in food consumption
- Throw-away packaging of products
- Proliferation of throw-away products
- Culture of disposability
Consequences:
- Environmental pollution
- Resource depletion
- Climate change

Emergence of the internet changed how people interact
Characteristics:
- Anonymity and lack of physical contact
- Openness in chat rooms and online forums
- Social networking allows people to be connected
- Obsession with virtual world and recreating oneself online
The Disembodied Subject:
- Dissatisfaction with limitations of the body drives people to prefer technology
- People prefer interacting with gadgets rather than human physical interaction
- The practice of selfie and group selfies
- Complications in human interactions and relationships
The Essence of Technology:
- Heidegger argues that nearness is not about proximity or distance
- Technology abolishes distance, but we are not near to many things
- The essence of technology is a way of thinking that represents nature as something to be harnessed for human use
- It poses a threat to humans and reduces human persons into calculable objects