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Theme 1 Wjec Eduqas model essay on psychological egoism
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- Unit 3 - Religion and Ethics
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- WJEC
Model essay written by an A* student and marked by teacher on 20 marker on explaining psychological egoism.
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Wjec eduqas A level THEME 1 intuitionism model answerExplain the view that agents have an intuitive ability to discover moral laws (20)
Intuitionism or Ethical non-Naturalism is a meta- ethical theory that claims that
moral facts can be known (cognitivism) and exist independently of human beings
(realism). These moral facts can be known prior to physical or empirical evidence or
experience, also known as a priori, meaning that they exist objectively and apply
universally and are not subject to opinion or relative to culture. Intuitive ability is defined
as the ability to acquire knowledge or understand things without any proof or evidence.
Well-known advocates of Intuitionism include G.E. Moore, W.D. Ross and H.A Pritchard.
All humans have the in-built ability to know intuitively the difference between
right and wrong. Moore claimed that good is a simple, unanalysable property, just as a
primary colour is indefinable or sui generis (unique) but meaningful. He said that we
cannot use our senses to tell whether something is good, but we can use our moral
intuition to see if a moral statement is true or false. Our ability to know goodness is
innate and the same for all moral agents. For example, we recognise goodness when we
see it, even if it is a “simple notion” that cannot be defined, we can show an example of
it. This means that agents have an intuitive ability to discover moral laws and therefore
it is universal, in the same way that the colour yellow is a universal truth. Moore
concludes his theory by arguing that the only morally permissible way to behave is to try
to maximise goodness by acting on your intuitions.
Pritchard claims that moral obligations are obvious as everyone can recognise
properties and when we “ought” to do certain actions. He thought that there were two
types of thinking: general and moral. General thinking looks at the facts of the situation
and allows you to provide a more comprehensive rationale for goodness. Moral thinking
decides which particular action was right and Pritchard essentially argues that moral
thinking allows individuals to identify what is good. For example, giving charity is good
and can intuitively be thought of. This would then be supported by general reasoning
which tells us that charity supports the less fortunate.
Ross, a deontologist, agrees with Moore and Pritchard where terms such as
“right” and “obligatory” are as indefinable as “good” and argues it was obvious that
certain types of actions were right. These were called the prima facie duties (duties
based on first impressions or the initial reasons) that are derived from intuition. For
example, the prima facie duties include the duties of fidelity (promise keeping), duties of
reparation, non-maleficence and many more. Ross says that when these duties conflict,
agents have an intuitive ability to discover moral laws by following the one we think is
right in the situation
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