OCR A Level Ethics Terms

Agape – Unconditional love; central to Situation Ethics.

Business Ethics – The moral principles applied to business practices.

Categorical Imperative – Universal moral law (Kant).

Cognitivism – The belief that moral statements are objective and true/false.

Compatibilism – Free will and determinism can coexist.

Deontological Ethics – Ethics based on duty and rules (e.g., Kantian Ethics).

Determinism – The belief that all events are pre-determined and inevitable.

Doctrine of Double Effect – A morally good act may have an unintended bad consequence (Aquinas).

Eternal Law – The moral order established by God (Natural Law).

Euthanasia – The practice of assisted dying; debated in ethics.

Hedonic Calculus – Bentham’s method for measuring pleasure and pain.

Hypothetical Imperative – A moral rule based on desired outcomes (Kant).

Intuitionism – Moral truths are self-evident and known through intuition (Moore).

Just War Theory – Ethical framework for war (Aquinas, Augustine).

Kantian Ethics – Deontological moral theory based on duty and universal laws.

Meta-Ethics – The study of the nature of moral language and judgments.

Natural Law – Moral order inherent in nature, given by God (Aquinas).

Non-Cognitivism – The view that moral statements are expressions of emotion, not facts.

Principle of Utility – The greatest happiness for the greatest number (Utilitarianism).

Sanctity of Life – The belief that life is sacred and should be preserved.

Situation Ethics – Ethical theory prioritising love over rules (Fletcher).

Soft Determinism – The idea that free will and determinism are compatible.

Utilitarianism – Ethical theory focusing on maximising happiness (Bentham, Mill).

Virtue Ethics – Aristotle’s ethical theory focusing on moral character.