| A | B |
|---|
| existentialism | a philosophical theory that emphasizes the existence of the individual as a free and responsible agent determining who he/she will become |
| atheistic existentialism | the view that, because there is no God and no resulting moral laws, individuals are free to determine their own human nature through choices for which they stand accountable |
| Friedrich Nietzsche | said "God is dead" and said we should create our own morality |
| theistic existentialism | the view that emphasizes the existence of the individual but in particular dwells on the relationship of the individual to God |
| ubermensch (overman) | Nietzche's idea of the person who creates his/her own morality instead of following the slave (conventional) morality of the group |
| Jean-Paul Sartre | Said that because there's no God human beings don't have a "nature" and that it is our responsibility (and burden) to choose, by the choices we make in our actions, who we will become |
| Morality of the Overman/Ubermensch | involves creating his or her own values |
| Slave/herd morality | involves bbeying the moral code given to people by parents, society, religion or some other outside source |
| Sartre said there is no human nature but he cheated slightly: there was one feature that necessarily belonged to our existence: | "we are condemned to be free" |
| For Sartre, because there is no set pattern or template of what it means to be human | we are our own project---we create who we will become |
| For Nietzsche, because there is not god to make morality (and reality) objective, | we each have our own perspective on reality and thereby need to come up with our own set of values to live by |
| an existential ethics focuses on | freedom--our own and also respecting others' freedom |
| Cognitivism | a view that maintains moral statements are either true or false |
| Noncognitivism | a view that maintains the moral statements are not statements that are either true or false |
| Emotivism | a noncognitivist view that says moral statements are expressions of feeling |
| David Hume | was an empiricist who thought moral claims arose out of feeling and not rational processes |
| moral realism | maintains that moral statements can express moral facts that are true, independent of any subjective, personal beliefs about those facts |
| moral realism arrives at moral facts by discovering them through the reasoning process | in contrast, emotivism maintains moral claims are the result of subjective expressions of feeling and as such, can't be right or wrong |
| moral truths, according to moral realism | are correct---even if no one actually holds those truths. |
| "killing the innocent is unethical" is a moral truth, even if no one on the planet had that opinion | according to the view of moral realism |
| Nietzsche's _________, in which everyone has their own view of everything, including morality, comes in opposition to moral realism | perspectivism |
| A weakness of emotivism/noncognitivism: | one can't argue about feelings. Feelings just are. So moral argument ends. |
| A weakness of existentialist ethics: | Provides no guidance other than having to choose and respecting the choices/freedom of others |
| A strength of existentialist ethics: | its stress on having to take responsibility for one's actions |
