Key Terms

Question 1

Agency

Answer 1

The capacity of an agent to act in any given environment.

Question 2

Agent

Answer 2

A being who is capable of action. Agency and action are typically restricted to human beings, because human beings have the capacity to reason, make a choice between two courses of action, then do what they have chosen.

Question 3

Applied ethics / practical ethics

Answer 3

Like

Question 4

Argument from analogy

Answer 4

Arguments which compare two things and draw a conclusion about one of them on the basis of their similarities are called arguments from analogy, or analogical arguments.

Question 5

Autonomy

Answer 5

(from the Greek auto - self, and nomos - law)

An agent has autonomy in so far as it is rational and free. For Kant, moral autonomy was only achieved through following the categorical imperative.

Question 6

Autonomy of ethics

Answer 6

To some philosophers Hume’s Law indicated the autonomy of ethics, that is, that the ethical realm was entirely distinct from other, factual or naturalistic, realms.

Question 7

Categorical imperative / imperative

Answer 7

In

Question 8

Cognitivism and non-cognitivism

Answer 8

Cognitivism in ethics is the view that moral judgements are propositions which can be known - they refer to the world and they have by have s a truth-value (they are capable of being true or false). Non-cognitivism is the view that moral judgements cannot be known, because they do not say anything true or false about the world (they do not have a truth-value). There are many different forms of non-cognitivism, such as emotivism, prescriptivism and nihilism.

Question 9

Conclusion

Answer 9

A statement that comes at the end of an argument and that is supported by the reasons given in the argument. If an argument is valid or sound and all of the premises are true, then the conclusion will be also be true.

Question 10

Consequentialist ethics

Answer 10

A type of normative moral theory which views the moral value of an action as lying in its consequences. So an action is judged to be good if it brings about beneficial consequences, and bad if it brings about harmful ones. This is in contrast to deontological ethics. Egoism and utilitarianism are two examples of consequentialism.

Question 11

Deontological ethics

Answer 11

A type of normative moral theory that views the moral value of an action as lying in its dutiful motives. Generally, deontologists (such as Kant) propose certain rules, bound by duties, which guide us as to which actions are right and which are wrong. This is in contrast to consequentialism. Kantian ethics is an example of a deontological theory.

Question 12

Disposition

Answer 12

Our tendency to behave in certain ways, our character traits. This term is used by virtue ethicists, who believe we ought to develop virtuous dispositions.

Question 13

Divine command ethics

Answer 13

A type of deontological ethical theory, which claims that the moral value of an action is determined by the commands of God. So an action is right if it follows one of God’s commands.

Question 14

Duty

Answer 14

An action which we are required or impelled to carry out. Kant’s deontological theory places duty at its centre. For Kant, duties are experienced as imperatives.

Question 15

Emotivism / emotivist

Answer 15

A non-cognitivist theory of the meaning of moral terms and judgements. In its basic form, emotivism claims that moral judgements do not refer to anything in the world, but are expressions of feelings of approval or disapproval.

Question 16

Empirical fact

Answer 16

A fact established by observation.

Question 17

Empiricism / empiricist

Answer 17

An epistemological position which holds that our beliefs and knowledge must be based on experience. David Hume was one philosopher who rigorously applied his empiricist approach to the questions in the philosophy of religion.

Question 18

Error theory

Answer 18

An anti-realist theory of ethical language put forward by J.L. Mackie. It proposes that our moral judgements are making objective claims about the world (so it is a cognitivist position), but these claims are always false (there is nothing ‘out there’ in the world which our moral terms actually refer to).

Question 19

Eudaimonia

Answer 19

According to many ancient Greek philosophers, eudaimonia is the goal or ‘good’ we are all striving for. Sometimes translated as “happiness’, it is probably closer in meaning to ‘flourishing’. Aristotle’s virtue ethics is centred around eudaimonia.

Question 20

Fallacy

Answer 20

This refers to an argument which has gone wrong, either because a mistake has been made, rendering the argument invalid; or because the argument has a form, or structure, which is always invalid

Question 21

Free will

Answer 21

Also known as metaphysical freedom.

The idea of free will is that the controls aspects of its own life. such as bodily movements like picking up a pencil. Free will can be contrasted with determinism, which is the belief that all events in the universe are the necessary consequence of physical laws, and these laws apply to human actions as well. A determinist might claim that humans are like complex pieces of biological machinery with no real freedom of will. Some philosophers believe that these two positions (free will versus determinism) are compatible with each other, and claim that humans can have free will but are also subject to deterministic laws, such a view is known as compatibilism.

Question 22

Golden rule

Answer 22

Versions of this rule have been proposed at various points within religion and moral philosophy (for example, by Confucius, Jesus, Hobbes and Kant). The basic idea is that we should be impartial, and not afford ourselves special treatment: we should treat others as we should like to be treated. See also universalisability.

Question 23

Good

Answer 23

Actions are good according to whether they bring about certain positive outcomes - these may be pleasure or happiness, or something more intangible (Moore believed that love of friendship and beauty were goods). Consequentialists believe that moral value lies in the good (or bad) consequences of an action. But ‘good’ also has a functional meaning, in the sense that ‘good’ means ‘fulfilling your function well. Aristotle believed that we had a function and hence could be good in both senses: by being good (fulfilling our function) we could reach the good (eudaimonia).

Question 24

Good will

Answer 24

For Kant, a good will is one that acts for the right reason (which means following rules that you could rationally will that everyone else should follow too). A good will is the only thing that is good without qualification.

Question 25

Hedonism / hedonistic

Answer 25

The claim that pleasure is the good.

Many utilitarians are hedonists, in that they believe we ought to try to maximise pleasure (for the majority).

Question 26

Hypothetical imperative / imperative

Answer 26

In Kantian ethics we experience our duties as commands (imperatives) which are categorical, or absolute. These categorical imperatives are commands that we are obliged to follow no matter what, and according to Kant, only these are moral imperatives. As rational agents we can work out the categorical imperative by asking whether the maxim that lies behind our action is universalisable. Other imperatives, things we should do in order to achieve some goal, are conditional or hypothetical imperatives, and they are not moral according to Kant.

Question 27

Intuitionism / intuitionist

Answer 27

A realist theory which claims that we can determine what is right or good according to our moral intuitions. For intuitionists, the terms ‘right’ and ‘good’ do refer to something objective, but they cannot be reduced to naturalistic terms.