1 min read · 159 words
Six thinkers, one idea each, applied to case studies: the highest-return section of Paper IV.
The thinkers in one line
- Gandhi: truth and non-violence; ends never justify immoral means; seven social sins.
- Kant: duty ethics; categorical imperative — act only on maxims you could will universal.
- Aristotle: virtue as habit; golden mean between excess and deficiency.
- Utilitarian (Bentham, Mill): greatest happiness for the greatest number; Mill adds qualitative pleasures.
- Rawls: justice as fairness; veil of ignorance and the difference principle.
- Plato: philosopher-king, virtue as knowledge; Socrates: knowledge is virtue, evil is ignorance.
Case-study plugs
- Trolley problems: util tally vs Kantian duty not to use a person as means.
- Whistle-blowing: Gandhi on means, Rawls on fairness to the least advantaged stakeholder.
- Preventive detention dilemma: collective security utilitarianism vs rights-based deontology.
Revise in 30 seconds
- Gandhi: means matter as much as ends.
- Kant: universalisable maxims, persons as ends.
- Aristotle: virtue = habituated golden mean.
- Utilitarians: maximise aggregate welfare.
- Rawls: veil of ignorance, difference principle.
Quick revision
- Gandhi: truth and non-violence; ends never justify immoral means; seven social sins.
- Kant: duty ethics; categorical imperative — act only on maxims you could will universal.
- Aristotle: virtue as habit; golden mean between excess and deficiency.
- Utilitarian (Bentham, Mill): greatest happiness for the greatest number; Mill adds qualitative pleasures.
- Rawls: justice as fairness; veil of ignorance and the difference principle.
- Plato: philosopher-king, virtue as knowledge; Socrates: knowledge is virtue, evil is ignorance.