debate glossary ch 2 - political philosophy & ethics

1. Utilitarianism

An action is morally right if it produces the greatest overall benefit or happiness.

2. Consequentialism

An action is judged mainly by the consequences it produces.

3. Deontology

An action can be right or wrong because of the rule or duty involved, regardless of its consequences.

4. Virtue Ethics

Morality is about developing good character and becoming a good person.

5. Moral Absolutism

Some actions are morally right or wrong regardless of circumstances.

6. Moral Relativism

What is morally right can depend on the culture, society, or moral framework being considered.

7. Moral Objectivism

Some moral truths exist independently of what individuals or societies believe.

8. Moral Subjectivism

Moral judgments ultimately depend on individual attitudes or preferences.

9. Ethical Egoism

People ought to act primarily in their own self-interest.

10. Altruism

Morally valuable behavior can involve deliberately benefiting other people at a cost to oneself.

11. Hedonism

Pleasure and the avoidance of suffering are the fundamental sources of value.

12. Eudaimonia

Human flourishing or living a deeply fulfilling life is treated as the central goal of ethics.

13. Categorical Imperative

Kant's principle that moral rules should be principles that everyone could consistently follow.

14. Hypothetical Imperative

A command that applies because someone has a particular goal.

15. Moral Duty

An obligation to do or avoid something because it is morally required.

16. Justice

The principle that people should receive fair treatment and that institutions should distribute rights, opportunities, benefits, and burdens appropriately.

17. Distributive Justice

Justice concerning how resources, opportunities, benefits, and burdens should be distributed.

18. Procedural Justice

Justice based on whether the process used to make a decision is fair.

19. Retributive Justice

Justice focused on giving wrongdoers punishment proportionate to their wrongdoing.

20. Restorative Justice

Justice focused on repairing harm caused by wrongdoing rather than only punishing the offender.

21. Corrective Justice

Justice that seeks to correct an unfair loss or harm between people.

22. Equality

The principle that people should receive the same status, rights, treatment, or share according to the relevant standard.

23. Equity

Fairness achieved by accounting for differences in people's circumstances rather than always treating everyone identically.

24. Equality of Opportunity

People should have comparable chances to pursue positions or benefits regardless of irrelevant characteristics.

25. Equality of Outcome

Justice is partly evaluated by how equal people's final conditions or outcomes are.

26. Formal Equality

People in similar situations should be treated according to the same rules.

27. Substantive Equality

Equality requires addressing real-world disadvantages, not merely applying identical rules.

28. Fairness

A situation is fair when people are treated according to a justified standard of impartiality or equal consideration.

29. Desert

The idea that people should receive benefits or penalties according to what they deserve.

30. Need-Based Justice

Resources should be allocated according to how much people need them.

31. Justice as Fairness

John Rawls's theory that just institutions should be acceptable to free and equal people under fair conditions.

32. Original Position

Rawls's hypothetical situation in which people choose the basic rules of society from an equal bargaining position.

33. Veil of Ignorance

A hypothetical condition where people do not know their own future social position when choosing principles of justice.

34. Difference Principle

Rawls's principle that inequalities are acceptable only when they improve the position of the least advantaged.

35. Primary Goods

Things people generally need to pursue their goals, such as rights, liberties, opportunities, income, and wealth.

36. Basic Liberties

Fundamental freedoms that individuals should possess equally and that should receive strong protection.

37. Political Liberalism

The idea that a democratic society can be legitimate without requiring citizens to share one comprehensive moral or religious worldview.

38. Overlapping Consensus

Different moral or religious groups can support the same political principles for different reasons.

39. Public Reason

Political decisions should be justified using reasons that citizens with different comprehensive beliefs can reasonably engage with.

40. Intergenerational Justice

Justice requires considering the rights and interests of people who will live in the future.

41. Negative Liberty

Freedom understood as the absence of external interference.

42. Positive Liberty

Freedom understood as having the actual ability or capacity to control one's life.

43. Harm Principle

John Stuart Mill's principle that coercion is justified mainly to prevent harm to others.

44. Paternalism

Restricting someone's freedom for the purpose of protecting that person from harm.

45. Autonomy

The ability of a person to make meaningful decisions about their own life.

46. Individual Liberty

The freedom of individuals to make choices without unjustified interference.

47. Collective Liberty

Freedom understood partly as the ability of a group or community to govern itself.

48. Freedom of Choice

The ability to select among meaningful alternatives without coercion.

49. Capability

A person's real ability to achieve a particular way of living.

50. Freedom of Conscience

The freedom to form and follow one's own moral, religious, or philosophical convictions.

51. Social Contract

The idea that political authority is justified through an agreement, hypothetical or actual, among people who accept common rules.

52. State of Nature

A hypothetical condition describing human life without an established political authority.

53. Consent of the Governed

The idea that legitimate government requires the people's authorization or acceptance.

54. Political Legitimacy

The quality that makes political authority justified and worthy of being obeyed.

55. Political Obligation

The idea that citizens may have a moral duty to obey legitimate political authority.

56. State of Exception

A situation in which normal legal or political rules are suspended because of an extraordinary crisis.

57. Rule of Law

The principle that government and citizens are subject to publicly known and consistently applied laws.

58. Natural Rights

Rights believed to belong to people simply because they are human.

59. Natural Law

The idea that certain moral principles can be discovered through human reason or the nature of humanity.

60. Popular Sovereignty

The principle that ultimate political authority belongs to the people.

61. Communitarianism

The idea that people's identities and moral obligations are deeply shaped by their communities and social relationships.

62. Individualism

The idea that individuals are the primary units of moral and political concern.

63. Collectivism

The idea that the interests of groups or society can take priority over individual interests.

64. Common Good

Conditions and goods that benefit members of a society collectively rather than only particular individuals.

65. Civic Virtue

Qualities such as responsibility, participation, and concern for the community that support political life.

66. Solidarity

A commitment to support others because people share common interests, identities, or vulnerabilities.

67. Social Responsibility

The idea that individuals and institutions have obligations to consider how their actions affect others.

68. Moral Luck

The idea that factors outside a person's control can affect how morally responsible or blameworthy they are judged.

69. Moral Agency

The capacity to understand moral reasons and make choices for which one can be held responsible.

70. Moral Responsibility

The idea that a person can properly be praised, blamed, rewarded, or punished for an action.

71. Rights

Justified claims or protections that individuals or groups are entitled to have respected.

72. Positive Rights

Rights that require someone, often the state, to provide or enable something.

73. Negative Rights

Rights that primarily require others not to interfere with someone.

74. Universal Human Rights

Rights understood to belong to every person regardless of nationality, status, or identity.

75. Duty

A moral requirement to perform or avoid a particular action.

76. Perfect Duty

A strict moral duty that must not be violated.

77. Imperfect Duty

A moral duty that requires a general commitment but leaves discretion over when and how to fulfill it.

78. Rights Conflict

A situation where protecting one person's or group's right appears to interfere with another right.

79. Trolley Problem

A thought experiment asking whether it is morally permissible to sacrifice one person to save several others.

80. Double Effect

The principle that an action with both good and harmful effects can sometimes be permissible when the harm is not the intended means or goal.

81. Prisoner's Dilemma

A situation where individually rational choices can produce a worse collective outcome than cooperation.

82. Tragedy of the Commons

A shared resource can be overused when individuals have incentives to consume it while spreading the costs across everyone.

83. Free-Rider Problem

People can benefit from a shared good without contributing to its provision.

84. Coordination Problem

A situation where people can benefit from cooperation but struggle to coordinate on the same action.

85. Collective Action Problem

A situation where individuals share an interest in a collective outcome but each has incentives not to contribute.

86. Veil of Ignorance

A thought experiment where people design social rules without knowing which position they will occupy.

87. State of Nature

A hypothetical society without established political authority used to ask why government is necessary.

88. Original Position

A hypothetical bargaining situation used to determine principles of justice under fair conditions.

89. Liberal Egalitarianism

The view that individual liberty should be protected while society also ensures meaningful fairness and equality.

90. Libertarianism

A political philosophy that gives very strong weight to individual liberty, property rights, and limited coercive government.

91. Contractarianism

The view that political or moral rules can be justified through rational agreement among people.

92. Contractualism

The view that moral principles should be principles that people could not reasonably reject.

93. Perfectionism

The view that political institutions may legitimately promote certain forms of human flourishing or valuable ways of life.

94. Neutrality

The principle that the state should avoid favoring one controversial conception of the good life over others.

95. Pluralism

The idea that multiple legitimate values, interests, identities, or groups can coexist without being reduced to one hierarchy.

96. Value Pluralism

The idea that human values are genuinely multiple and can sometimes conflict without a single master value resolving every conflict.

97. Cosmopolitan Ethics

The view that moral concern should extend to all human beings regardless of nationality.