Notes for 4/13/2026

 4/13/2026
[Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")]
[Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408]

A and B have been married 40 years. B is dying. During years 20-25 of the marriage, A had an affair with B’s best friend, C. Should A confess to B before B dies?
 
History of Modern Philosophy
(Summer & Fall) 
Ethics: the use of reason in the service of the good.


Meta-ethics: the examination of ethical concepts (good, bad, right, wrong, obligation, etc.)

“What, exactly, does that mean?”

Normative ethics: How do we decide what is right and wrong? (Includes ethical theories)

Applied ethics: Are specific types of actions permissible or impermissible. (Include questions like is the use of autonomous weapons systems permissible?)

Both normative and applied ethics make use of the other main methodologies from this class:

“Why should we do that rather than something else?”

“What (moral) difference might it make if we act one way rather than another?”


What is the difference between ethics and morals?

(Generally, the difference is that ethics has to do with objective standards, while morals have to do with subjective values.)

However, this distinction is NOT well-preserved in detailed treatments of the topics.
Often ‘moral’ and ‘ethical’ are used interchangeably. 

Ethical subjectivism (individual relativism)
Ethical objectivism (individual moral judgments can be right or wrong)
Ethical/moral realism (ethical facts exist)

It is always more complicated than you think.





Plato thought that the Forms formed a hierarchy. At the very top of this hierarchy is the Form of the Good. Goodness itself.

Whether or not any Form is a “good fit” to anything in the world presupposes the Form of the Good.

For Plato, an action will be good to the extent that it matches the Form of the Good.

We know whether or not some action is good in respect of the use of reason.


Neo-Platonism swaps the form of the Good with God.

(Reason is a transcendent power of the soul to know the Forms.)

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