phil terms and concepts

Utilitarianism

The ethical theory that actions are right if they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number, focusing on outcomes rather than intentions.

Consequentialism

An ethical theory that judges the rightness or wrongness of actions based solely on their consequences.

Distributive Justice

An equity-focused approach that addresses how society's benefits and burdens should be allocated.

Corrective Justice

A framework concerned with how individuals should be punished for their wrongdoings.

Mill’s Harm Principle

The principle stating that individuals should be free to act as they choose, provided their actions do not harm others.

Nozick’s Libertarian Theory of Justice

The idea that individual rights and minimal government intervention are essential, arguing that just resource distribution occurs through voluntary exchanges.

Cosmopolitan Egalitarianism

The belief in equal moral status for all individuals, advocating for a global community where everyone has equal access to basic resources.

Identity-based Persecution

Discrimination and threats faced by individuals based on their identity, such as race, gender, or ethnicity.

Humanitarian Definition of Refugee

A designation for individuals seeking refuge due to adverse conditions like war, natural disasters, or poverty.

Rule of Law

The principle that all individuals, including government officials, are accountable to the law, which must be clear and fairly applied.

Complicity

The state of being involved with others in wrongdoing, such as supporting a business that engages in unethical practices.

Parfit’s Harmless Torturers

The thought experiment describes a scenario in which a thousand torturers each slightly increase the pain of a victim using a device, but no single increase is enough to be noticeably harmful. However, the cumulative effect is extreme suffering. This challenges traditional moral reasoning that ties responsibility to direct, perceptible harm.

Obligation

refers to actions one is morally required to perform

Prisoner’s Dilemma

A scenario in game theory illustrating how individual rational choices can lead to collective harm, applicable to climate ethics.

Future Discounting

The tendency to prioritize immediate benefits over future gains, impacting decisions regarding environmental sustainability.

Principle of Intergenerational Equality

The notion that present and future generations hold equal moral worth and should inherit a sustainable world.

Longtermism

The ethical perspective emphasizing the importance of long-term impacts on humanity's future and the need for present action to prevent irreversible damage.

Adaptation

focuses on adjusting to its effects.

Polluter Pays Principle (PPP)

The principle holding those who pollute responsible for paying the costs of the pollution.

Beneficiary Pays Principle (BPP)

The idea that those benefiting from resources causing pollution should bear the costs.

Ability to Pay Principle (APP)

The principle stating that those financially able should contribute to addressing environmental costs.

Geoengineering

Large-scale technological interventions aimed at mitigating climate change.

The Green New Deal (GND)

A policy framework aiming to tackle climate change and economic inequality through government investment in sustainable practices.

Degrowth

The concept of reducing economic production and consumption to achieve sustainability and justice.

Individual Causal Inefficacy (ICI) View

The belief that individual actions may seem too insignificant to impact large-scale issues, questioning moral obligations to act.

Prima Facie

initially deemed wrong but may be overridden

Civil Disobedience

The nonviolent violation of laws to protest injustice, often seen as a legitimate method for social change.

Uncivil Disobedience

The confrontation or violent violation of laws that rejects the moral obligation to peaceful protest.

all-things-considered wrongs

wrongs that maintain their moral wrongness under all circumstances.

supererogation

actions that exceed moral duty.

mitigation

preventing climate change

just war theory

framework in ethics and political philosophy that seeks to determine when war is morally justifiable and how it should be conducted ethically.

doctrine of double effect

an action with a harmful side effect can be permissible if the harm is not intended but merely foreseen.

Jus in Bello

Principles governing actions in war (how should war be fought ethically) 

Jus ad bellum

right to war but under certain circumstances (when is war justified)