Buddhism: Dialogue with Ethics

What Buddhism: Dialogue with Ethics covers

Buddhism: how ethical studies and the tradition have shaped one another. Part of Component 2, sat only by students who take Buddhism as their chosen religion.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Buddhist Ethics Compared with Western TheoriesRecall questions on the comparison with Kantian deontology, with consequentialism through karma, and with virtue ethics.Open →
• Buddhist Responses to Ethical IssuesRecall questions on character-based Buddhist ethics and its responses to abortion and euthanasia, the treatment of animals, theft, lying, marriage, genetic engineering and wealth.Open →
• Buddhist Views on Human Life and DeathBuddhist responses to the prescribed issues of human life and death, including abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, embryo research, cloning and designer babies, and capital punishment, drawing on the first precept, intention, the Vinaya, Keown, the Dalai Lama and Nagarjuna.Open →
• Buddhist Views on Animal Life and DeathBuddhist responses to the prescribed issues of animal life and death, including intensive farming, hunting and blood sports, animal experiments and cloning, and organ transplants, drawing on ahimsa, the Vanijja Sutta, Ashoka's edicts and dana.Open →
• Tolerance, Free Will and Responsibility in BuddhismRecall questions on the principles supporting tolerance, the balance struck over religious expression and the tension over free will.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Buddhism: Dialogue with Ethics further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Intention vs Consequence

  Intention: the factor that makes an action skilful or unskilful in Buddhist ethics. Consequence: the outcome by which utilitarian ethics judges an action.

• Virtue ethics vs Deontology

  Virtue ethics: an ethic focused on the character the agent becomes. Deontology: an ethic focused on duties binding regardless of outcome.

• The middle way vs The golden mean

  The middle way: the path avoiding both indulgence and severe asceticism. The golden mean: Aristotle's virtue lying between excess and deficiency.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   How can Buddhist ethics be compared to Kantian deontological ethics?

   Model answer

   The Five Precepts function as moral guidelines that Buddhists follow regardless of consequences, similar to Kant's emphasis on duty and moral rules.

2. 2

   In what way does karma relate Buddhist ethics to teleological and consequentialist approaches like Bentham's utilitarianism?

   Model answer

   Karma operates on the principle that actions produce consequences that affect future wellbeing, paralleling the consequentialist focus on outcomes.

3. 3

   Why can Buddhist ethics be compared to character-based virtue ethics?

   Model answer

   The Eightfold Path and cultivation of qualities like compassion and wisdom focus on developing moral character rather than following rules or calculating outcomes.

4. 4

   What arguments support the view that Buddhist ethics are deontological?

   Model answer

   The absolute nature of the Five Precepts as moral rules and the emphasis on right action as intrinsically valuable.

5. 5

   What arguments challenge the view that Buddhist ethics are purely deontological?

   Model answer

   The flexibility of precepts as training rules rather than absolute commands, and the consideration of intention and context in moral evaluation.

6. 6

   What arguments support classifying Buddhist ethics as teleological?

   Model answer

   The goal-oriented nature of the path toward nirvana and the emphasis on consequences through karma.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Buddhism: Dialogue with Ethics revision questions

What does Buddhism: Dialogue with Ethics cover in AQA A-Level Religious Studies?

5 subtopics: buddhist ethics compared with western theories, buddhist responses to ethical issues, buddhist views on human life and death, buddhist views on animal life and death and tolerance, free will and responsibility in buddhism. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Buddhism: Dialogue with Ethics organised?

By the AQA 7062 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.