Chapter 8

Question 1

Flourish

Answer 1

To develop healthily for the fulfillment of one’s nature

Question 2

Human Rights

Answer 2

Those things to which we have a just claim because we need them in order to fulfill the moral responsibilities of our human nature. For example, the right to freedom of religion allows us to fulfill the duty we owe to God.

Question 3

Relativism

Answer 3

A dangerous philosophy that says moral principles are a matter of individual preference based on personal experience, socioeconomic status, education, and particular culture, rather than based on absolute objective moral truths. Relativism denies the existence of good and evil and harms our ability to choose the good.

Question 4

Utilitarianism

Answer 4

An ethical theory that states that the morality of an act is determined by the amount of material benefit and happiness it brings to the most people, often understood in terms of pleasure or pain, or lack thereof.

Question 5

Virtue

Answer 5

A habitual and firm disposition to do the good. Moral virtues are acquired through human effort. The infused moral virtues and the Theological Virtues are gifts from God.

Question 6

Abortion

Answer 6

The deliberate termination of pregnancy by killing the unborn child. Willed as an ends or a means, abortion is gravely contrary to the moral law.