Ethics Exam 2 vocab real

Unit 2 Terminology

Omnipotence

All powerful; capable of doing anything

Omnibenevolence

All good; perfectly good

Deism

The belief in God, but one who does not intervene in the natural world

Atheism

The lack of a belief that gods exist, or the belief that gods do not exist

Monotheism

The belief that there is only one God

Polytheism

The belief that there are multiple gods

Accidental Property

A characteristic of something that is not necessary to its nature or existence; a property that something possesses but can still exist if it loses it

Essential Property

A characteristic of something that is necessary to its nature or existence; a property of something that, if it's lost, then that thing ceases to exist

Meta Ethical Component of Divine Command Theory

God’s commands (or what the Divine wills) are what make the moral facts facts, in that they are what make moral propositions true or false

Normative Component of Divine Command Theory

An action is morally wrong if and only if it disobeys God’s commands (or is incongruent with what the Divine wills)

Euthyphro's Dilemma

"Is the pious loved by the gods because it's pious, or it is pious because it is love?" (Does God command an action because that action is morally right, or is the action morally right because God commands that action?)

Powers

Capacities for doing something

Dispositions

A property that inclines the possessor towards some state

Theoretical Reason

Reason’s concern with what is (i.e. metaphysics) and what we know (i.e. epistemology)

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of knowledge and its grounds

Practical Reason

Reason’s concern with how to act

Synderesis

The innate knowledge of first moral principles

Telos

A thing's end, purpose, or goal

Moral Absolutism

The innate knowledge of first moral principles

(Aquinas' ultimate definition of) Law

Law is an order of reason for the common good by one who has the care of community, and promulgated

Eternal Law

God's plan of creation, in which He appoints to everything its appropriate end

Natural Law

God's plan for human beings as communicated to them by reason

Human Law

Ordinances of rulers to their subjects, for the subjects' benefit, that have their source in the natural law

Divine Law

The law that God informs us of

Intrinsic Value

Valuable in its own right (or for its own sake)

Instrumental Value

Valuable as a means to something else that is valuable

Eudaimonia

Happiness, but in the sense of living a flourishing life; well being, but in the sense of living well

Virtue

That which allows a thing to perform its function well

Intellectual Virtues

Qualities of the mind that make someone an excellent thinker

Character Virtues

Character traits, or dispositions, toward behaving in some manner

Golden Mean

The desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency

Situationism

The theory that changes in human behavior are factors of the situation rather than the traits a person possesses

Stoicism

A Greek school of philosophy that believed the wise live in harmony with Divine Reason that governs nature and are indifferent to the changes of one's fortune.

Causal Determinism

Each event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature

Appearances

How things seem to us

Reality (according to Stoicism)

How things are and must be

Primary Objects of Nature

Something we seek naturally given the kind of creature we are

Normative Hedonism

The claim that all and only pleasure has intrinsic value, and all and only pain has intrinsic disvalue; A theory of well being claiming that well being consists in the overall balance of pleasure over pain

Consequentialism

A theory that says whether an action is morally wrong or right depends on whether it produces bad outcomes or good outcomes, respectively

Act Utilitarianism

A moral theory that says an action is morally right if and only if it maximizes utility and minimizes disutility

Rule Utilitarianism

An action is morally wrong if and only if it disobeys justified moral rules

Total Utilitarianism

‘Maximizing utility’ means maximizing the total amount of utility (regardless of how the utility is distributed)

Average Utilitarianism

‘Maximizing utility’ means maximizing the average utility of the members of the aggregate

Desire Satisfaction Theory

A theory that holds that a person’s well being is enhanced if their desires are satisfied, diminished if their desires are frustrated

Preference Satisfaction Theory

A theory that holds that a person’s well being is enhanced if the desires they would have if they didn’t have any false beliefs are satisfied, diminished if those desires are frustrated

Objective List Theory

A theory that holds that a person’s well being depends on a variety of basic objective goods, at least some of which are not mental states

Negative Utilitarianism

A moral theory that says an action is morally right if and only if it minimizes suffering (and only worry about maximizing happiness afterwards, if at all)

Deontology

A moral theory that holds that the rightness or wrongness of an act depends upon the adherence of rules, duties, or obligations

Intentionalism

A moral theory that holds that the moral value of an act is a function of the nature of the agent's intentions

The Universalizability Principle

Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law

Maxim

A rule of conduct

Perfect Duty

A duty that must be adhered to at all times, no exceptions and involves refraining from treating rational beings as mere means to ends

Imperfect Duty

A duty that must be performed only some of the times, if you're able, and involves treating rational beings as ends in themselves

The Humanity Principle

So act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means

Good Will

A will that performs its moral duties because they're the moral duties; in other words, a will that does the right thing because it's the right thing

(Moral) Duty

A rule, or obligation, that is necessary (in the moral sense of 'necessary') for us to perform

Hypothetical Imperative

A command, made by reason, to perform an action because it's a means to something else

Categorical Imperative

A command, made by reason, to perform an action because reason represents the action as good in itself and, therefore, as necessary to perform

End in Itself

Something that is an objective end/goal

Ought Implies Can

The principle that says an agent has a moral obligation to perform an action only if it is physically possible for the agent to perform it