Prof Giddings Midterm Review Moral standards: concern behavior that seriously affects human well being. Soundness depends on the adequacy of the reason that support them. Take priority over other standards Etiquette: refers to the norms of correct contact in public society or, more generally to any special of of social behavior or courtesy 4 kinds of law: - Statutes: laws enacted by legislative bodies. The law that defines and prohibits theft is a statute. Congress and state legislatures enact statutes. - Administrative regulations : legislatures often set up boards or agencies whose functions include issuing detailed regulations covering certain kinds of conduct. (ex, they regulate that nurses and physicians need licenses to practice legally. - Common law: Refers to the body of judge-made law that first developed in the english speaking world centuries ago when there were few statutes. the massive body of precedents and legal principles that accumulated over the years is collectively known as “common law” -Constitutional law : refers to court rulings on the requirements of the constitution and the constitutionality of legislation. Legality should not be confused with morality. An action can be illegal but morally right. An action that is legal can be morally wrong. Morality and Religion: The idea that morality must be based on religion can be interpreted in 3 different ways, none of which is plausible. -avoid going to hell -moral instructions of worlds great religions are general and imprecise -Divine command theory— if something is wrong, then the only reason why it is wrong is because God says not to do it. Ethical Relativism: The theory that what is right and wrong are determined by one’s society says is right and wrong. There are many problems with this theory. Morality and Self Interest: Morality restrains our self interested desires. Part of the point of morality is to make social existence possible by restraining self-interested behavior. Sometimes doing what is morally right can conflict with one’s personal interests. What you choose to do will depend on what kind of person you are. Social Pychologist Solomon Asch: did experiment where asked group of 9 college students to look at lines and see which one match with line on other card.

Murder of Kitty Genovese: woman stabbed to death in 1960s. mades headlines because 38 of neighbors wittinessed murder, did nothing. Someone thought somebody would call authorities, Argument.. valid or invalid: An argument whose premises logically entail its conclusions is a valid argument. an invalid argument is one whose premise do not entail