Unit IV: Frameworks and Principles behind our Moral Disposition

Vocabulary flashcards covering ethical frameworks, areas and types of ethics, Aristotle's virtue ethics and the Golden Mean, and St. Thomas Aquinas's Natural Law Theory.

Ethical Framework

A set of rules or theories that people use to guide their behavior and distinguish right from wrong.

Moral Disposition

A person's general attitude, outlook, or habit toward life and moral choices, involving traits like responsibility and fairness.

Meta-ethics

The area of ethics that deals with the nature of the right or the good, as well as the nature and justification of ethical claims.

Normative Ethics

The area of ethics that deals with the standards and principles used to determine whether something is right or good.

Applied Ethics

The area of ethics that deals with the actual application of ethical principles to a particular situation.

Agent-centered Theories

Ethical theories that are more concerned with the overall ethical status of individuals, or agents, and less concerned with identifying the morality of particular actions.

Consequentialist Theories

Ethical theories primarily concerned with the ethical consequences of particular actions.

Non-consequentialist Theories

Ethical theories that tend to be broadly concerned with the intentions of the person making ethical decisions about particular actions.

Virtue Ethics

A moral structure rooted in the Greek word aretē where hypotheses underline the purpose and significance of one's character and virtue to evaluate the integrity of actions, focusing on the improvement of general righteous character.

Aretē

An ancient Greek word meaning an excellence of moral or intellectual character, equated by the Greeks to greatness.

The Lyceum

The school built in Greece by Aristotle, who contemplated reasoning under Plato in the Academy and lived between 384 and 322 BCE.

Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle's book and moral hypothesis centered on discussing excellence and character, or 'what makes a human life good or worth living,' named after his child Nicomachus.

Telos

A Greek expression that signifies 'last reason,' as well as reason, objective, end, or the genuine last capacity of an object.

Teleology

An ethical theory and consequentialist framework derived from telos that considers reason to be the 'end,' where obligation and moral commitment depend on acceptable or attractive results.

Instrumental Ends

Acts that are done as means for other ends.

Intrinsic Ends

Acts that are done for their own sake.

Function Argument

Aristotle's contention that all things have purposes, objectives, or ends which must be accomplished to their benefit, locating goodness in the actualization of that capacity.

Intellectual Virtue

Aristotle's term for the realization and knowledge of one's actual function in order to accomplish goodness or greatness.

The Golden Mean

Aristotle's principle in Nicomachean Ethics stating that virtue is a balance or mean between the two extremes of deficiency and excess in feelings, desires, and actions.

Quarrelsomeness

The deficiency extreme in interpersonal relations characterized by constantly arguing or disagreeing with others.

Friendliness / Agreeableness

The virtuous Golden Mean in interpersonal relations characterized by treating others with respect and maintaining harmonious relationships without being overly submissive or argumentative.

Ingratiation / Obsequiousness

The excess extreme in interpersonal relations characterized by being excessively eager to please others, sometimes at the expense of honesty or self-respect.

St. Thomas Aquinas

The main proponent of Natural Law Theory, born in Roccasecca, Italy (January 28, 1225 – March 7, 1274, aged 48-49), recognized as a Doctor of the Church.

Summa Theologica

One of the most important theological works of St. Thomas Aquinas where he expounded on the 5 proofs of God's existence.

Summa Contra Gentiles

A major work by St. Thomas Aquinas known as the 'Book on the truth of the Catholic faith against the errors of the unbelievers.'