Ethics Lecture Notes - Three Approaches to Ethics (Aristotle, Kant, Levinas)

A vocabulary-style set of flashcards covering key terms from the ethics lecture notes, including Aristotle’s teleology, Kant’s deontology, and Levinas’s ethics of the face.

Reliability

The quality of being trustworthy and dependable in moral judgments and actions.

Ethical Theories

Frameworks for evaluating right and wrong; the three approaches aim for the Good and relate to Christian ethics.

Responsibility

Obligation to answer for one's actions and their consequences.

Principle

A fundamental rule or standard guiding ethical judgment.

Trust

Belief in the reliability, integrity, or character of a person or system.

Choice

The act of selecting among alternatives in ethical decision making.

Ethics

Moral principles and reasoning about what is right and wrong.

Behavior

Actions and conduct in moral contexts.

Relationship

The social connection between people; central to Levinas's ethics and to ethical reasoning.

Morality

Principles concerning right and wrong conduct.

Aristotle

Ancient Greek philosopher who developed teleological ethics centered on virtue, happiness, and the mean.

Teleology

The design or purpose-driven view of ethics; actions aim at a goal or final end.

Virtues

Dispositions toward moral excellence; cultivated habits that enable flourishing.

Happiness

Eudaimonia; living well and flourishing through virtuous activity.

The Mean

Aristotle’s doctrine that virtue lies between excess and deficiency.

Supreme Good

The ultimate goal of life; in Aristotle, happiness achieved through virtuous, rational activity.

Good Will

Kant’s notion that moral worth comes from acting from duty, not from personal gain.

Deontology

Duty-based ethics; rightness depends on intention and adherence to duty.

Maxim

A personal principle or rule guiding action; Kant’s maxims include universal law and treating others as ends.

Universal Law

Act only on maxims you could will to become a universal law.

Ends in Themselves

Treat others as having intrinsic value, not merely as means to an end.

The Face

Levinas’s concept of the unique presence of the Other that calls us to responsibility.

The Other

The person encountered whose vulnerability and dignity demand ethical obligation.

Hospitality

Ethical obligation to welcome and care for those in need.

Ethics of the Face

Levinas’s view that ethical obligation arises from encountering the Other’s face.

God (Kantian support)

In Kant, the idea that God helps justify the possibility of achieving the Supreme Good beyond human power.

Freedom (Kantian)

The capacity to choose rationally to act according to moral law.

Immortality (Kantian)

The afterlife that Kant argues is needed to achieve the Supreme Good.