RS

• Naive Realism


  The belief that your senses (what you can see, smell etc) tell you what is real
• Optical Illusions


  Something that tricks your eyes
• Skandhas


  Buddhists believe that we are made up of 5 skandhas (like our thoughts, feelings and body). We depend on these to exist and be ourselves and all of them can change, so we can't have a fixed, permanent self
• Social Media


  Websites and apps that allow you to share things with your friends or followers
• Thought Experiment


  An experiment which comes up with an idea and imagines "what if?" scenarios to try and learn something
• Virtual


  Something that doesn't exist, but that computers make it seem like it does exist
• Virtual Reality


  A computer programme that seems like real life
• 75% of people admit that they make their lives look more exciting on Social Media
• This does not have to be a problem, just as long as we know that we are only seeing the best bits of their lives
• Stephen Furtick: 'The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel'
• Real you


  Some people believe you have a soul - your body and brain are not the real you, your soul is. Other people believe that you are just your consciousness and thoughts. Others believe that your body makes up who you are, and that you wouldn't really be you if you didn't have a human body
• There is no agreement about what makes a person a real person
• We are a collection or bundle of parts that can change over time - in fact, there is not one cell in your body that was there 7 years ago
• Brain in a Vat Theory

  A thought experiment where a scientist has removed your brain without you waking up, put it in a jar of special liquid to keep it alive, and is sending electric currents through it to trick it into thinking that it is still in your body and living your life
• This is a bit like the film the Matrix, where people are kept in pods (but still with their bodies) and aliens trick them into thinking that they are living normal lives
• Naive Realism


  The view that we know what is real because our senses tell us. Something is real if we can touch, see, hear or smell it
• The problem with Naive Realism is that our senses can be fooled. We have dreams and hallucinations that seem real, Deja vu makes us think we have seen something before, and optical illusions trick us into thinking that things look one way when they really don't
• Scientific Realism


  The view that science can tell us what is real
• The problem with Scientific Realism is that science really oversimplifies things to make them work! When you get down to it, there are lots of things that science just can't explain
• Some people say that nothing is real. Perhaps we are all ideas in the mind of God. Others say that whatever works must be real, so science, maths etc. must be real after all
• 10 Commandments


  The 10 major rules in the Bible which Christians and Jews believe were given to them by God
• Abortion


  Ending a pregnancy by choice
• Adultery


  Cheating on your husband or wife, or cheating with someone who is married
• Agape


  The Greek word for the unconditional love we should have for all other humans
• Categorical Imperative


  How Kant said we should work out our moral duty - it has three formulations
• Civil Disobedience


  The idea that unfair laws should not be obeyed
• Deontological


  An ethical theory or decision based on rules
• Dilemma


  A situation where you don't know what to do
• Divine Command Theory


  The ethical theory that says you are doing the right thing if you follow God's commandments from the Bible
• Duty


  What you must do
• End


  The thing you want or the reason you do what you do - a means to an end
• Normative Ethical Theory


  A set of rules or principles to help you make moral decisions
• Ethics


  The principles which guide our behaviour and tell us what is right and wrong
• Euthanasia


  Assisted suicide or mercy killing for a person who is dying in terrible pain
• Golden Rule


  The ethical theory that says you are doing the right thing if you treat other people the same way you would like to be treated. This is something Jesus told people to do.
• Good Will


  Doing something just because it is right, from Kant's Ethics
• Hedonic Calculus


  The way to work out how much happiness is produced by an action, measuring against 7 things, such as repetition and how long the happiness will last
• Immoral


  Something that is wrong
• Livelihood


  The job you can do
• Means


  A way of getting something you want - a means to an end