Ethics 1 Notes PDF

Moral Agents METAETHICS: Moral Personhood ★ Sources of moral actions By Sir Francis Evangelista ★ Possesses moral duties...

Moral Agents METAETHICS: Moral Personhood ★ Sources of moral actions By Sir Francis Evangelista ★ Possesses moral duties Moral Patients Morally Evaluable Acts ★ Receivers of moral actions ★ Those that can be judged as morally right or ★ Possesses moral rights wrong ○ The right not to be killed, destroyed, Some acts are not morally evaluable because the or harmed subject (doer) of the act is not a moral person, or ★ Deserves moral consideration the object of the act is not a moral person, or both are not moral persons. ➔ What does it mean to be a moral person in the sense of being a moral patient? ➔ Not morally evaluable ◆ A ~ B if: A is not a moral person Rights B is not a moral person A & B are not moral persons ★ What we are entitled to do ➔ Morally evaluable ◆ A ~ B if and only if: Duties A & B are moral persons ★ What we ought to do Moral Person ➔ Rights imply duties (if I have a right to life, ★ Has moral status or moral standing then you have a duty not to kill me, right to speech means others are duty-bound not to ➔ Is a fetus a person? prevent you from speaking). ➔ Is someone in a persistent vegetative state a person? There are countries where abortion is legal and they based their law on the philosophical view that abortion is morally justified because a fetus is not yet a person. It does not have a moral standing YET. So, when does personhood begin and when does it end? What qualifies as a moral person? To have a moral status of standing? Moral personhood must be understood in two senses: being a moral agent and being a moral patient  Theories of Moral Personhood (as Moral Patient) ★ Genetic Theory of Personhood ○ John Noonan ○ Possession of human DNA ★ Rational Theory of Personhood ○ Immanuel Kant ○ Capacity for rationality ★ Cognitive Theory of Personhood ○ Mary Anne Warren ○ Consciousness ○ Reasoning ○ Self-motivated activity ○ Communication ○ Self-concept ★ Sentient Theory of Personhood ○ Peter Singer ○ Capacity to suffer ○ From anthropocentrism to sentientism ★ Life Theory of Personhood ○ Jainism ○ Possession of life or being alive ○ From anthropocentrism to sentientism to biocentrism ★ Rights of Nature (by Thomas Berry) 1. Right to Exist 2. Right to Habitat 3. Right to evolve and flourish ★ Relational Theory of Personhood ○ Being cared for ★ Gradient Theory of Personhood ○ Anne Finch Conway ○ Personhood comes in degrees