Ethics as Investigative Acts and Human Morality Flashcards

A comprehensive vocabulary flashcard set covering ethics concepts, types and classifications of human acts, moral dilemmas, and the foundations of morality from the lecture notes.

Ethics

The investigative study of moral standards to determine whether such standards are reasonably correct.

Normative Ethics

An aspect of ethics that concludes about what situations or actions are right and wrong.

Prescriptive Ethics

An aspect of ethics that determines decisions and courses of action.

Descriptive Ethics

An approach that merely explains and reaches no conclusions about whether actions are as they ought to be.

Difference Between Ethical Attitude and Action

A phenomenon in human behavior where individuals do not always do what is morally good and right, even if they know it.

Dilemma

A situation in which a tough choice has to be made between two or more options, especially more or less equally undesirable ones.

Moral Dilemma

Also known as an Ethical Dilemma, a situation where a choice has to be made between two or more acceptable but often opposing alternatives that transgress a moral principle.

Personal Dilemmas

Ethical dilemmas experienced and resolved on the personal level, involving decisions that must be personally made.

Organizational Dilemmas

Ethical cases encountered by social organizations, including moral dilemmas in medical fields, engineering, business, and public sectors.

Structural Dilemmas

Ethical cases involving a network of institutions that encompass multi-sectoral institutions and organizations.

Human Rationality and Autonomy

The trait stating that only human beings are rational, autonomous, and self-conscious.

Human Moral Agency

The principle that only human beings can act morally or immorally.

Moral Community

A community composed exclusively of human beings, making them uniquely capable of being ethical.

Human Acts

The human activity of a human as a person, by which he attains an end he wants to obtain, involving rationality, conscious understanding, and free will.

Acts of Man

Animal activities common with brutes—such as feelings, hearing, eating, tasting, and smelling—which are not classified as human acts.

Deliberate Act

An essential quality of a human act where a person acts consciously, knowing what they are doing and aware of its good or evil consequences.

Free Act

An essential quality of a human act where the person performing the act is free from external force beyond their control.

Voluntary Act

An essential quality of a human act where the act is done out of the will and decision of the person.

Involuntary Natural Acts

A category of acts of man that includes involuntary, intuitive, or reflex acts exhibited by men.

Voluntary Natural Acts

Non-moral acts that are voluntary and natural but not necessarily reflective, involving a certain degree of freedom while being neither moral nor immoral.

Moral or Ethical Acts

Human acts that observe or conform to a standard or norm of morality.

Immoral or Unethical Acts

Human acts that deviate from standard morality.

Amoral or Neutral Acts

Acts that are neither moral nor immoral in themselves, but may become ethical or unethical depending on the surrounding circumstances.

Elicited Acts

Acts that begin from the will of the person; a will-act begun and completed in the will without bodily movement.

Commanded Acts

Body and mind acts done to carry out the elicited acts of the subject or agent.

Wish (Paul Glenn)

The natural inclination of the will towards an object, including objects that are possible or impossible.

Intention (Paul Glenn)

The will's tendency towards something attainable but not obligatory.

Consent (Paul Glenn)

The acceptance of the will to implement the person's intention.

Election (Paul Glenn)

The stage where the agent chooses from a variety of means what he believes to be the most effective to carry out the intention.

Use (Paul Glenn)

The will's command to make use of the selected means in carrying out the intention.

Fruition (Paul Glenn)

The enjoyment of the will as a result of the attainment of the object desired earlier.

Internal Commanded Acts

Commanded acts that refer to purely mental faculties under the command of the will.

External Commanded Acts

Commanded acts done by the body as commanded by the will.

Mixed Commanded Acts

Commanded acts performed using both bodily and mental powers.

Intention or Motive

The first component of a human act evaluated to determine whether the act conforms to or violates a moral principle.

Means of the Act

The second component of a human act, referring to the instrument or method used to carry out the action.

End of the Act

The third component of a human act, representing the goal or final result achieved.

Human Will

The agency of choice and part of the soul that affects freedom and reasoning, stirring a person to act or hampering him from acting.

Strength of Character

A personal trait whose strength or weakness is directly determined by the strength or weakness of a person's will.

Will (in Relation to Intellect)

The natural tendency of being attracted to what is good and beautiful and repulsed from what is evil and ugly, after presentation by intellect.

Freedom (Negative Definition)

The absence of constriction.

Freedom (Positive Definition)

The power to be and act under free will and choice.

Foundation of Morality

Freedom, because morality is a matter of choosing ethical codes, values, or standards, which is impossible without freedom.

James Rachels' Minimum Requirement for Morality

The stance that moral judgment must be backed up by sound reasoning and impartial considerations of all parties involved.

Impartiality

Also called evenhandedness or fairmindedness, a concept where each individual's interest and point of view are equally important, requiring decisions based on objective criteria rather than bias.