Chapter 8

Question 1

concerned with how things ought to be or what people ought to do.

Answer 1

Normative:

Question 2

refer to moral rights that belong to all human beings by virtue of their humanity, which override or generally outweigh other moral considerations; they correlate with the duties of all human beings – and especially all governments – to respect, protect, and promote the interests identified by these rights.

Answer 2

Human Rights:

Question 3

refers to the positive assertion of differences in the public space and it is seen as the first symbolic step towards the full inclusion of minority groups.

Answer 3

Recognition:

Question 4

rights that exist independently of any actual human laws or customs.

Answer 4

Natural Rights:

Question 5

way of thinking about political matters that is derived from ancient Greek thought and Roman law, whereby the content of law is given by nature and has universal validity.

Answer 5

Law of Nature:

Question 6

another name for an individual’s civil and political liberty, where political liberty is conceived broadly to include living under a constitutional government that has no authority to violate basic rights, and which is suitably constrained by a system of checks and balances to prevent abuses of authority; arguably maximized under some form of constitutional democracy, which recognizes a basic right to absolute liberty of self-regarding conduct.

Answer 6

Security:

Question 7

power to issue commands that are or ought to be obeyed because of from whom they issue.

Answer 7

Authority:

Question 8

agreement between persons in a state of nature that establishes the terms for a common society and/or government.

Answer 8

Social Contract:

Question 9

refers to a condition of human life in which there is no society larger than the family grouping, or, if there is a larger society, no government or positive laws.

Answer 9

State of Nature:

Question 10

collection of voluntary associations in political societies that help to mediate between that state and the citizens.

Answer 10

Civil Society:

Question 11

an individual has liberty in a purely descriptive sense in relation to a give domain of acts and omissions if, and only if, he or she can do as he or she wishes within that domain. If the individual chooses whatever act or omission he or she likes, then it follows that other people are not preventing that individual from acting, or omitting to act, as he or she chooses. The domain of conduct in relation to which an individual has liberty may be extensive or narrow, depending on the context. As long as he or she can choose even a single act or omission, however, that individual is at liberty in relation to that particular act or omission. It is a separate question whether the individual’s liberty has value in a given context.

Answer 11

Liberty:

Question 12

doctrine, of which there are many versions, that social institutions and practices should be organized so as to maximize general welfare or common good as the sole ultimate ethical value, and that individual actions ought also to aim at this end. Mill’s version holds that a code of justice and rights is more valuable for this purpose than any competing considerations.

Answer 12

Utilitarianism:

Question 13

method of group decision-making that is characterized by a kind of equality among the participants at an essential stage of the collective decision-making.

Answer 13

Democracy:

Question 14

view that each people or nation should have its own set of political institutions to enable it to decide collectively on matters that are of primary concern for its members.

Answer 14

Self-Determination:

Question 15

pertains when an individual can rationally choose his or her acts and omissions in accord with his or her own judgment and inclinations-where “rationality” implies at least a minimal capacity to understand and foresee the probable consequences of those acts and omissions.

Answer 15

Autonomy:

Question 16

refers to the right to exercise legal authority and the limits within which that right may be exercised.

Answer 16

Jurisdiction:

Question 17

rights of members of a cultural group to engage in practices that are central to their culture and/or the rights of a cultural group to take measures to protect its continued existence. These rights can take the form of exemptions from requirements imposed on all other persons and/or groups.

Answer 17

Cultural Rights:

Question 18

rights that involve no more than the absence of a duty on the part of the right holder.

Answer 18

Liberty Rights:

Question 19

refer to a person’s right to do or have something that correlates with other people’s duties to allow, or enable, that person to have to do that to which he or she has the claim right.

Answer 19

Claim Rights:

Question 20

rights that enable their holders to change the rights and duties both of themselves and of others, as when two people enter into a contract.

Answer 20

Power Rights:

Question 21

rights that render their holders immune from having their rights and duties changed by another person.

Answer 21

Immunity Rights:

Question 22

rights that are posited in law or social mores, which can be identified by empirical observation of the source of the rules in question.

Answer 22

Positive Rights:

Question 23

theory that grounds morality in imperatives that lay down moral obligations that are independent of the consequences of their being followed.

Answer 23

Deontology:

Question 24

view that either (a) what is right or wrong is entirely a matter for cultural determination and/or (b) that there is no basis for saying that the values of one culture are better than those of another.

Answer 24

Cultural Relativism:

Question 25

view that all of our actions should aim to maximize the amount of collective utility of all persons or even sentient beings. For example, a hedonistic version would require that we act so as to maximize the amount of pleasure and minimize the amount of pain in the world.

Answer 25

Act Utilitarianism:

Question 26

moral theory that states that we should choose that set of rules which, if consistently followed, would maximize the amount of collective utility of all persons, or even sentient beings (for example, given a hedonistic conception of utility, that set of rules which would maximize the amount of pleasure and minimize the amount of pain in the world). We should then judge the moral acceptability of actions by reference to these rules. This two-stage approach introduces some distance between the moral acceptability of an act and its consequences, thereby overcoming some of the objections faced by act utilitarianism.

Answer 26

Rule Utilitarianism:

Question 27

hypothetical situation employed by Rawls to compare competing principles of social justice by asking which would be chosen by rational individuals were they to be situated behind a veil of ignorance that deprives them of knowledge of their fortunes in the social and natural lottery, as well as of their conception of well-being.

Answer 27

Original Position:

Question 28

approach that focuses on the rationality of human beings with specific reference to their capacity to make moral choices, in relation to both what duty requires of them and the capacity to choose to do what their reason tells them to be morally right.

Answer 28

Autonomy Theory:

Question 29

being who has a will – although not necessarily a rational will – to do something.

Answer 29

Agent:

Question 30

pertains when an individual’s conduct satisfies ethical standards of right conduct prescribed by a given theory of morality. The ethical standards might be incorporated within a thick concept of rationality, or they might be assumed to constitute a concept of reasonableness that is independent of a thin concept of rationality. Ethical standards may vary across different moral theories and, in some instances, may overlap with standards of beauty established by aesthetic theories.

Answer 30

Moral Autonomy:

Question 31

declaration of citizens’ rights or human rights, normally incorporated in a constitution and sometimes used by courts to override legislation or executive action.

Answer 31

Bill of Rights: