Chapter 12 - Ethics and Values in Education

Flashcards covering the vocabulary, meta-ethical theories, and normative ethical systems discussed in Chapter 12: Ethics and Values in Education.

Ethics

Moral philosophy concerned with the nature of morality and moral judgements, about what is 'right' and 'wrong' in particular situations, and the kinds of persons we should be.

Morality

The idea that some behaviour is good or right and that other behaviour is bad or wrong.

Etiquette

A set of customs and rules for polite behaviour; in other words, manners.

Law

A system of rules developed and enforced by a society or government in order to deal with business agreements, personal relationships and crime.

Descriptive empirical enquiry

A type of enquiry concerning the origin of morality and ethics, focusing on how character and moral personality are formed.

Meta-ethical enquiry

Enquiry consisting of conceptual analysis and the investigation of the nature and purpose of morality, moral judgments, and the methods for answering ethical questions.

Normative enquiry

Enquiry guided by the question 'How ought I to live?', covering theoretical investigations in ethics and the application of theories to practical moral problems.

Proposition

A statement that is true or false, such as 'An educator should exercise authority with compassion'.

Argument

The expression of a piece of reasoning in language; a set of propositions where the conclusion follows from the premises.

Sound

A term describing an argument that has both correct content (true premises) and a good form (valid reasoning).

Analysis

A term meaning 'to take or prise apart'.

Conceptual analysis

Involves searching for criteria for applying concepts as well as asking what counts as an instance of a given concept and what the features of that instance or model case are.

Personal relativism

Sometimes called ethical subjectivism, it is the view that right and wrong, good and bad, are determined by the attitudes or sincerity of each individual person.

Existentialism

A philosophical view, emphasized by Jean-Paul Sartre, that humans are 'condemned to be free' and define themselves by the choices they make rather than an inherent 'human nature'.

Cultural relativism

The view that right and wrong, good and bad, are determined by the standards and traditions of particular cultures or societies.

Folkways

Traditionally transmitted codes of behaviour, action-guides, and customs or manners that are 'right' simply because they aid survival under life conditions.

Mores

Folkways that have developed into prescriptive rules indicating what everyone belonging to a particular social group ought to do.

Ethnocentrism

A view of the world where a person's owning group or culture is considered the center of everything, and all others are rated as inferior with reference to it.

Divine command theory

A theory stating that morality is objective and based on God's will; whatever God commands is right and whatever God forbids is wrong.

Natural law theory

A theory postulating that the world has a rational order with values built into its nature, and that human beings act morally by acting in accordance with their natural inclinations.

Psychological egoism

A descriptive theory holding that human beings are so constituted as to look out, first and foremost, for their own interests, and thus cannot act unselfishly.

Ethical egoism

A prescriptive theory asserting that a person should always act out of self-interest and that one's only duty is to promote one's own greatest good.

Consequentialism

A category of theories, also known as teleological theories, stating that the moral evaluation of behavior depends on the consequences of the action rather than the action itself.

Utilitarianism

A teleological theory urging promotion of 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number' by taking the interests of all involved into account.

Social contract theory

Also called contractarianism, it is the view that morality consists of a system of rules established for mutual benefit that rational, self-interested individuals agree to abide by.

Deontology

A duty-based approach to ethics, such as that of Immanuel Kant, which claims the focus of morality should be on the act itself and the underlying principle rather than consequences.

Categorical imperative

Immanuel Kant's ultimate moral principle which commands individuals to 'Act solely on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law'.

Hypothetical imperative

A conditional use of 'ought' or 'should' that refers to desires or inclinations, such as 'If you want to lose weight, you should exercise'.

Respect for persons

A version of Kant's categorical imperative stating that rational beings should always be treated as ends in themselves and never merely as means to an end.

Choice conception of rights

A conception of rights associated with contractarianism holding that only morally or rationally autonomous beings can have rights.

Interest conception of rights

A conception of rights holding that all those who have interests can have rights, even if they are not rationally autonomous beings.

Virtue theory

An ethical approach focusing on the goodness of character and the traits (virtues) that make up a good person rather than the rightness of individual actions.

Ubuntu

A Nguni term for common humanity or humanness, emphasizing the solidarity principle that 'a person is a person through others'.

SACE

The acronym for the South African Council of Educators.