Introduction & Chapter 1: The Good Life

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing core ethical concepts, distinctions between ethics and other fields, fallacies, and theories of egoism.

Ethics

A branch or subdivision of philosophy grounded upon a foundation of reason that uses a rational and consistent method to analyze ethical categories such as 'good', 'bad', 'right', and 'wrong'.

Natural Science

A discipline aiming to describe the natural world, concerned with empirical facts that are amoral or morally neutral and devoid of moral or ethical values.

Prescriptive Activity

An activity, such as ethics, that prescribes how moral agents should or ought to behave in the world inhabited with others.

Psychology

A discipline aimed at explaining or accounting for why we behave the way we do by identifying the causal factors of an individual's actions.

Fallacy

An error in thinking.

Naturalistic Fallacy

An error in thinking that occurs when moral qualities or an 'ought' are mistakenly derived from natural facts, which are inherently morally neutral.

Psychological Egoism

A non-ethical position claiming that all human behavior is essentially aimed at self-benefit and self-interest, viewing genuine altruism as a myth.

Ethical Egoism

A position based upon psychological egoism arguing that since humans are in fact ego-centric beings, they should or ought to act in their own self-interest.

Principle of Consistency

A logical requirement that self-interest fails as an ethical norm because a self-interested individual would not logically want others to adopt a norm that conflicts with their own interests.

Altruism

Altruism means acting to help others without expecting a personal reward or gain, even when it costs you time, effort, or safety

Selfishness

a trait where a person cares only about their own needs, advantage, or pleasure without thinking about other people

Ethical Relativism

the theory that right and wrong depend on cultural or personal standards rather than on universal moral rules