Moral philosophy (mine)

• Moral anti-realism


  The theory that claims that there are no moral properties
• Error theory


  A form of moral anti-realism
• Moral non-cognitivism


  The theory that claims that moral judgements express non-cognitive attitudes. Moral judgements do not make claims about reality and are not true or false (they are not fact-stating).
• Applied/practical ethics


  The branch of ethics concerned with the application of normative ethical theories to particular issues, such as lying or stealing
• Arete


  An 'excellence', or more specifically, a 'virtue' – a quality that aids the fulfilment of a thing's ergon (Aristotle)
• Belief


  Affirmation of, or conviction regarding, the truth of a proposition
• Categorical imperative


  Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.' (Kant)
• Character


  A person's habitual dispositions regarding what they feel, how they think, how they react, the choices they make, and the actions they perform, under different circumstances
• Character trait


  An attribute that is exhibited by an individual as a matter of habit, e.g. honesty or being bad-tempered
• Choice


  What we decide upon as a result of deliberation, typically giving rise to voluntary action
• Cognitivism


  A cognitivist account of ethical language argues that moral judgements express beliefs, can be true or false and aim to describe the world
• Conscience


  An inner awareness, faculty, intuition or judgement that assists in distinguishing right from wrong
• Act consequentialism


  The theory that actions are morally right or wrong depending on their consequences and nothing else
• Contradiction in conception


  In Kantian ethics, the test for whether we can will a maxim to become universal law can be failed if it would somehow be self-contradictory for everyone to act on that maxim
• Contradiction in will


  In Kantian ethics, the test for whether we can will a maxim to become universal law can be failed if, although the maxim is not self-contradictory, we cannot rationally will it
• Deontology


  The study of what one must do (deon (Greek) means 'one must'). Deontology claims that actions are right or wrong in themselves, not depending on their consequences
• Desirable


  1. Worthy of being desired. 2) Capable of being desired
• Doctrine of the mean


  Aristotle's claim that virtue requires us to feel, choose and act in an 'intermediate' way, neither 'too much' nor 'too little', but 'to feel [passions] at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way'
• General/specific duties


  General duties are those we have towards anyone, e.g. do not murder, help people in need. Specific duties are those we have because of our particular personal or social relationships, e.g. to keep one's promises or to provide for one's children
• Perfect/imperfect duties


  Perfect duties are those we must always fulfil and have no choice over when or how (e.g. do not kill). Imperfect duties are cases in which we have some choice in how we fulfil the obligation (e.g. giving to charity)
• Emotivism


  The theory that claims that moral judgements express a feeling or non-cognitive attitude, typically approval or disapproval, and aim to influence the feelings and actions of others
• End


  What an action seeks to achieve or secure, its aim or purpose
• Final end


  An end that we desire for its own sake, we can't give some further purpose for why we seek it
• Ergon


  'Function' or 'characteristic activity' of something, e.g. the ergon of a knife is to cut, the ergon of an eye is to see
• Error theory


  The theory that moral judgements make claims about objective moral properties, but that no such properties exist. Thus moral judgements are cognitive, but are all false
• Ethics


  The branch of philosophy concerned with the evaluation of human conduct, including theories about which actions are right or wrong (normative ethics) and the meaning of moral language (metaethics)
• Eudaimonia


  Often translated as 'happiness', but better understood as 'living well and faring well'. According to Aristotle, eudaimonia is not subjective and is not a psychological state, but an objective quality of someone's life as a whole. It is the final end for human beings
• Experience machine


  Nozick's thought experiment concerning a virtual reality machine which someone plugs into for life
• Faculty


  A mental capacity or ability, such as sight, the ability to feel fear, and reason
• Felicific/hedonic calculus


  In Bentham's ethics, the means of calculating pleasures and pains caused by an action and adding them up on a single scale
• First principles


  Basic or foundational propositions in an area of knowledge or theory that are not deducible from other propositions
• Formula of humanity


  A version of the Categorical Imperative: 'Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end' (Kant)
• Function argument


  Aristotle's argument that the human good (eudaimonia) will be achieved by performing our characteristic activity (ergon) well. Traits that enable us to fulfil our ergon, which is rational activity, are virtues (arête)
• Golden Rule


  The moral guideline that says 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'
• Good


  In ethics, what is good provides a standard of evaluation and what we should aim at in our actions and lives
• Hedonism


  The claim that pleasure is happiness and the only good
• Hume's 'fork'


  We can have knowledge of just two sorts of claim: the relations between ideas and matters of fact
• Imperative


  A command or order. A hypothetical imperative is a statement about what you ought to do, on the assumption of some desire or goal. A categorical imperative is a statement about what you ought to do, without regard to what you want
• Integrity


  Acting on and living by the values that you endorse
• Intention


  A mental state that expresses a person's choice. It specifies the action they choose and often their reason or end in acting