I am having difficulties understanding certain topics of ethics and I have put them in question form below: I need the answers to those questions to help me to prepare for my exam.. The answers will be very rewarding in helping me to understand the topics of Ethcis that we have covered in our class better.
(our book " The elements of Moral Philosophy" by James Rachels)
These are the questions that I find diffuclt to answer and I would appreciate it if you could provide short answers ( maybe one paragraph, that will allow me to understand the answer fully) in order for me to get rid of the confusion and better understand my topics and also better prepare for my test. The answers that you provide will be used as a study guide for my upcoming exam.
Question1. What does it mean to say that moral reasons or motives depend on God? What is the problem with this view?
(Fear of punishment and hope of reward are the motives for morality?)
Question2. Discuss and define Classical Utilitarianism and explain why, according to this view, nonhuman animals are entitled to equal moral concern.
Question3.Utilitarians hold that the rightness and wrongness of actions depend only on their consequences. What is one of Rachels' criticisms of this view.
Question4. Rachels considers and rejects, the argument that ethical Egoism is compatible with commonsense morality. He says there are " two serious problems" with this argument. what are these problems?
Question5. One of the arguments in favor of " Psychological Egoism" is "The Argument that we always do what we most wanted to do". What are Rachels' two criticisms of this argument?
Question6. What are the differences between ethical egoism and Psychological egoism ?
(Psychological Egoism is concerned with how people do behave. Ethical Egoism is a theory about how we ought to behave... what are some other differences?)