Cmp6studyguide

Prisoners Dilemma

Part of game theory

Person can Cooperate or Compete

• Cooperate is better for the group
• Compete is better for individual
• Tit-for-tat strategy
  • Cooperating the 1st round then copying the opponent’s previous answer for following rounds
  • Polemarchus from The Republic thinks most like this strategy. He believes in helping his friends and hurting his enemies

The Republic

Characters and what they think justice is

• Cephalus—Speak the truth and pay your debts
• Polemarchus—Help your friends and hurt your enemies
• Thrasymachus—Help the strong and justice is not important
• Glaucon—Something is not good in itself but is good for something else (Chemotherapy)
• Socrates—A just person uses his conscience to rule the soul and be at peace
• Adeimantus

3 ways for something to be good

1. Good-in-itself but not good for something else (Pleasure)
2. Not good-in-itself but good for something else (Chemotherapy)
3. Good-in-itself and good for something else (Happiness and being healthy)

Amoral
Something that does not involve a moral decision (Which vegetable to eat for dinner)

Immoral
Something that goes against morals (Cheating)

3 Main Approaches to Ethics in Western Philosophy

1. Deontology (reasons why I act)
   • Duties and principles behind actions
   • Divine Command Theroy
2. Consequentialism (outcomes of act)
   • Utilitarianism
   • Ethical Egoism
3. Virtue Ethics (who should I be)

Divine Command Theory

1. Some way to unambiguously know the will of God
2. Main reason why I act is because it's the will of God

Believe in a God that has rule over them

Usually from Judaism, Christianity or Islam

Problem with this thinking is that people do not know what God says 100% of the time.

Ethical Egoism
Do what is good for you, no matter what it does to someone else

Utilitarianism

Maximum benefit for the good of society

Bentham

• People governed by pain and pleasure
• Amount of pleasure can be calculated using the Hedonic Calculus
• 3 Requirements of Punishment
  • Has to be intentional
  • Has to take something away from you or harm you
  • Has to be done because of something you did or everyone thinks you did

Mill

• Focused on quality of happiness

Descriptive Claims - claims about the way the world is
Prescriptive Claims claims about the way the world ought to be
Naturalistic Fallacy - confusing is's & ought's
Deterrence harming one individual to scare everyone else or teach everyone a lesson
Ideology refers to all the ideas we use to structure the world

*Utilitarianism can explain how people reach their everyday moral conclusions because it
is an wthical theory that focuses on harm and benefit or happiness and unhappiness to
morally significant beings.
*An action is morally bad if it harms someone, whereas it is morally good if it helps or
benefits someone.
*Ethical theories that claim that good and evil are related to consequences or results are
called consequentialist theories… Utilitarianism is a consequencialist ethical theory that
provides a means to evaluate actions.
*Betham and Mill thought that pleasure was the essential component of happiness.

*Strengths of Utilitarianism:
1. A clear content for ethics
2. Responding tothe situationof the agent
3. Consistency with the basic objective of human beings

*Weaknesses of Uitilitarianism:
1. Doing the calculations
2. Results Contrary to Moral Intuitions
3. Moral Luck

• Utilitarianism- Best result for everyone
• Ethical Egoism- Best result for yourself
• Hedonism- going for most pleasure and least pain