Ethics vocab for final

Controversial/uncontroversial

The property of a statement that describes the degree of agreement or disagreement it receives from a specific audience

objective

something that is mind independent; it is true or false regardless of what any given individual or group believes or feels about it

provable/unprovable

the property of a statement referring to whether it can be demonstrated as true through logical reasoning and available evidence

counterfactual

A “what if” sentence that uses hypothetical scenarios to test our claims or ideas, such as testing objectivity by asking if a truth would still hold even if our beliefs and practices were different

“not so” objection

A type of objection that directly challanges the truth of one of the premises in an argument

conclusion

The specific statement in an arguement that is supported by the reasons or premises; also referred to as the thesis

Premise

The statements or reasons within an argument that are intended to provide support for the conclusion

Moral Objectivism

The view according to which at least some moral truths are mind-independent, remaining true regardless of what a group or individual happens to believe

descriptive

concerns “what is the case”- how the world is, how things work, what they are, etc

statement

an expression of belief that can be either successful or unsuccessful in representing reality

belief

a mental representation of the world, often expressed in statements, that aspire to truth/try to accurately represent reality

subjective

something that is mind dependent, such as prefrences and person likings or dislikings

normative

concerns “what should be the case/ what one should do” but where we directly consider what our values, goals, and principles should be, and not simply what they happen to be

“so what” objection

An objection that targets the inference or relationship of support, arguidng that even if the premise is true, it does not actually support the conclusion

Argument

a set of statements where one (the conclusion) is presented as being supported by the others (the premises)

true/false

the property of a statement describing its success or failure in accurately representing reality

reality

what beliefs try to accurately represent; has an objective side and a subjective side

response-independence

a feature of objective truths where the truth of a matter does not depend on what we happen to prefer, believe, feel, or practice

instrumental

concerns “what should be the case/what one should do” given certain values and goals one already has; involves means-end reasoning

Tolerance Objection

The worry that belief in objective moral truths leads to dogmatism and intolerance. Enoch counters that moral objectivity doesn't tell us how to respond to people we morally disagree with, and he also says that, if someone believes that it is wrong to be intolerant, they are likely committed to the objectivity of this very claim

Moral Subjectivism

For all moral beliefs, what makes them true is that the individual believes them.

Moral Relativism

For all moral beliefs, what makes them true is that the culture/society one belongs to subscribes to them.

Disagreement Objection

This objection argues that if there were objective moral truths, we should expect people's views to converge on them, and so our persistent disagreement suggests that morality is not objective. Enoch responds by noting that the objection underrates disagreement in other fields, overrates disagreement about ethics, neglects to consider "objectivity-friendly" explanations of disagreement, and may even lead to "self-defeat".

Epistemic Bubble

An informational network from which relevant voices have been excluded by omission.

Affective Friction

The experience of disfluency, stress, and frustration that occurs when an individual's internal norm psychology is misaligned with their social environment.

Echo Chamber

A social structure from which other relevant voices have been actively discredited.

Norm Psychology

A cluster of emotional and cognitive mechanisms that allow humans to track and adapt to whatever norms happen to structure the social interactions in their communities... regardless of whether the norms are good or bad.

Backlash

This is what happens when social enforcement of new norms is experienced as a threat from a hostile outgroup, leading to feelings of alienation, embarrassment, and resentment.

Eyeroll Heuristic

If it’s preachy and annoying, it’s OK to ignore it. Many people use this as a reason to dismiss new norms and the people who advocate for them.

Virtue

A state / disposition to choose the mean, with correct understanding of why it is virtuous, deliberate preference for it as virtuous, and, in general, as the virtuous person would do it.

Open Mindedness

A disposition to engage seriously with relevant intellectual options, which involves a willingness to revise one's beliefs.

Epistemically Hostile Environment

Environments that are utterly saturated with intellectual options that are false, unreliable, or aimed at misdirection.

Normative Contextualism

The idea that the normative status of cognitive character traits depends on the situation in which these traits are manifested and the individual's internal constitution.

Virtue Ethics

An ethical theory according to which you should act as the virtuous person would act in your situation (the right thing to do is the virtuous thing).

Vice

For every virtue there are two of these—one of excess, and one of deficiency. The mean is between these two extremes.

Moral Grandstanding/Virtue Signaling

A form of communication that aims to convince others that one is morally respectable, which occurs when we advertise our moral convictions to others in order to gain greater regard or to secure in-group belonging

Near Enemy

Seductive, plausible counterfeits that closely resemble the virtues but are nonetheless distortions of it.

Righteous Incivility

When an individual declines to conform to social conventions due to individual moral conviction: they judge these conventions need disrupting, whether because integrity demands it or because some greater social good is won by it, or both.

consequentialism

A family of ethical theories, according to which the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined soley by the consequences (what happened as a result)

Partial vs Impartial

The degree to which a theory allows us to prioritize certain people or beings over others

utilitarianism

A type of consequentialism according to which the right action is the one that would have the best overall, long-term impact on the amount of happiness and suffering in the world.

Theory of value

A theory of goodness and badness, which things are good or bad, and what makes them so.

Theory of right action

A theory of rightness and wrongness, which actions are right or wrong, and what makes them so.

ethical egoism

A type of consequentialism according to which the right action is the one that would have the best consequences for oneself individually.

hedonism

A Theory of Value according to which pleasure and pain, happiness and suffering, are the basis of good and bad.

conative being

Anything which has needs, desires, and goals: they pursue ends; they have certain wants and generally go about trying to satisfy them...

conflict and cooperation

A situation where the aims or purposes of multiple beings are in opposition, or, alternatively, when those aims and purposes coincide.

rule consequentialism

A type of consequentialism which bases right and wrong on the consequences of general rules of conduct.

desire- / prefrence- satisfaction

A Theory of Value according to which desire- / preference-satisfaction is the basis of good and bad.

act consequentialism

A type of consequentialism which bases right and wrong on the consequences of each particular action.

secondary principles

These are intermediate rules or “rules of thumb” (such as "do not lie" or "do not steal") that humankind has learned through experience... Mill argues that while the greatest happiness principle is the first principle of morality, these are essential for daily life.

swine objection

This is an attack on utilitarianism which claims that the theory is a "doctrine worthy only of pigs" because it suggests that life has no higher object of pursuit than pleasure.

motive of action

This refers to the internal feeling or reason (such as duty or hope of payment) that prompts an agent to act. Mill asserts that this has nothing to do with the morality of the action itself.

self renunciation

Mill argues that this total act of total self-sacrifice has no inherent value. In contrast, he says that self-sacrifice is valuable only when it is done for the happiness of others.

repeatability objection

Critics of Singer’s argument raise this concern: that a policy of helping everyone in need would eventually take over one's life, turning many "insignificant" sacrifices into one extremely significant sacrifice.

drowning child

This is a famous thought experiment by Peter Singer used to illustrate that if one is required to save a child at the minor cost of muddying their clothes, moral consistency requires donating money to save lives from poverty.

rescue principle

"If it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it."

supererogatory

This refers to an act that is "above and beyond the call of duty"—something that is good to do but not wrong not to do. Singer challenges this traditional classification regarding aid.

morally insignificant sacrifice

This term is used by Peter Singer to describe giving up things that are relatively trivial and do not involve sacrificing especially weighty or important interests, like luxury consumer goods.