Take Home Exam 
Ethics
 (3 Pages minimum, Single Spaced, 12 pt font)

4/13/171Introduction to PhilosophyTheory of Value 2Recapitulation•Subjectivism is the view that there are no facts of the matter at all to make value statements true or false•Metaphysical arguments: the only real facts can only be described (is, not ought) or feature only natural propertiesØBut why could there not be other facts, or why could not real facts be described in two ways, as natural and as not-natural?•Argument from deep disagreement: ethical disagreement cannot be settled in any way, even though one can argue in ethics > is most easily explained if there are no facts of the matter.•Best argument: for most beliefs, the fact that we have them is explained best by reference to reality being so-and-so; for beliefs about value, however, that does not seem to be the case > the easiest explanation there seems that they are the result of our ‘natural responses’, our experience, our upbringing.•All these arguments do point to a difference between normal beliefs and beliefs about value, but they are not enough to argue for subjectivismØIf subjectivism were correct, there should be deep disagreement about every belief about value > subjectivism cannot explain that there is also deep agreement about some values.ØSubjectivism cannot explain that it is crucial for beliefs about value that they are shared by at least some group.Conventionalism•The core idea of conventionalism is that there are facts about value, but that they are different from facts in science, because they are facts made facts by someoneØThis can easily explain deep disagreement > not necessary to be subjectivist for that reasonØThere are different versions of conventionalism, depending on who does the making: God, a culture/society, or an individualDivine Command Theory•Something is good because God/gods make it goodØBecomes all the more attractive, the more powerful one’s concept of a god is: ancient Greek goods were not held to be very powerful, but monotheistic gods, having created the world, can become very powerfulØThe more powerful a god is, the more difficult it is to distinguish between the divine command theory and realism > if a god has created the whole world, then everything is such that it is so because the god made it so. 4/13/172Criticism of Divine Command Theory•Criticism of Divine Command Theory assumes that there is a real difference between normal facts and ethical facts•1. There are many religions or many gods: are they all creating ethical facts?•2. If DCT were true, then the god(s) could have made any value statement true ØThey would have acted without a reasonØThey must have acted without a reason, because if they had had a reason, then the ethical fact would have been there, because of this reason, not because the god(s) would have made it a fact.ØThis argument works against any conventionalist theory.Ethical Relativism•Ethical relativism says that values are culture-dependent (not merely situation-dependent)ØNot in the sense that cultures disagree about valuesØBut in the stronger sense that values are there because they are adopted by a culture•Problems with Ethical relativism:1.Same problem as with DCT: cultures could adopt any value –it is completely arbitrary2.It leads to conformism: it is impossible to criticize current values3.It does not justify the rule that one should not interfere with the values of another culture > why not just eradicate that culture?Mitigated Ethical Relativism•It seems possible to adopt a mixed account of value, according to which:-there are facts determining for some things what is good-For other things such facts are created by society/groupRealism•How could there be ethical facts without them being the same type of facts as normal facts?•It is possible to talk about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in a descriptive way:Ø‘This is a bad hammer’Ø‘My left eye is my good eye’Here ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is related to a function> something can be such that it can/cannot perform its functionØArtefactshave functions because human beings give them a function > created factØNatural things have functions because in evolution these things remained there because of providing an advantage > real fact