February 01, 2001
What is Ethics? An incomplete glossary from the staff at the Ethics Center
A·ble·ism (v.) 1. Prejudice or discrimination against persons with disabilities, including physical, mental, and developmental disabilities 2. Excluding such persons from the human "norm," most often by assuming that they need "fixed" in order to live full lives [see also "racial discrimination"] [links] [more]
Au·to·no·my (n.) 1. The freedom to be your own person—a law unto yourself—which is both a blessing and a curse 2. The state of being self-governing or self-ruling 3. The capacity to both give oneself to the law and to fulfill it (Kantian)
Ben·e·fi·cence (v.) 1. Doing good to another
Bi·o·e·thics (n.) 1. The study of the ethical implications of biological research and applications, especially in medicine 2. The interdisciplinary study of the ethical dimensions of technological developments in the life sciences 3. A distinct field—emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s—addressing the dilemmas of moral and technological conflict, with theologicans being among its key proponents (Gustafson, Curran, Ramsay, McKormick) [links]
Ci·ti·zen·ship (v.) 1. The status of being a member of a community 2. The moral obligation of living in a democratic society (C. West) 3. Living out your role as a social agent, committed to sharing with others those material conditions that enable political participation (D. Batstone, E. Mendieta) 4. The quality of an individual's response to membership in a community so that the individual learns to balance competing demands between self-fulfillment/self-preservation and care of/justice for the neighbor [see also "public" and "servant leadership"]
Char·a·cter (v.) 1. The complex mental and ethical traits marking a person or group 2. Moral fortitude 3. A person's pattern of moral strengths and weaknesses, gathered from their ways of acting, responding and construing situations
Con·science (n.) 1. See Jiminy Cricket
Com·mon Good (n.pl.) 1.
Com·mu·ni·ty (n.pl.) 1.
De·on·to·lo·gi·cal E·thics (n.) 1. An ethics based on the belief that you should always do what you ought to do, regardless of the consequences 2. A duty-based ethic 3. A school of ethics associated with Immanuel Kant [see also "virtue ethics"]
E·pis·te·mo·lo·gy (n.) 1. The study or theory of how we can know anything at all 2. The study of or search for the limits, validity, and grounds of knowledge
E·thics (n.pl.) 1. The study of morality 2. The evolved capacity to bring reason to issues and situations that our moral traditions do not equip us to handle as well as we might 3. The study of which goals are appropriate and/or acceptable (G. Ellis) 4. The study of the intersections of the self's relation to self(ves), the will to truth, and the exercise of power (Foucauldian) 5. Is not the study of how not to get sued 6. The process of asking if status quo morality is right or appropriate [links]
E·thi·cal i·ma·gi·na·tion (v.) 1. The ongoing process of envisioning feasible, life-giving worlds 2. The practice of empathy
E·thos (n.) 1. The character, usually, of a group, organization or culture 2. The Greek root of the English term "ethics"
Fe·mi·nist E·thics (n.) 1. Ethics centered around women's experiences, as opposed to traditional Western ethics' assumption of "maleness" as the human norm 2. An ethic of appropriate care-giving and -receiving, as opposed to an ethic of transaction, duty, or rules [see also "virtue ethics"] [links]
For·give·ness (v.) 1. The chosen, considered act of giving up a warranted right to revenge, but not to memory or to justice 2. A key step toward reconciliation
Harm·ing (v.) 1. Causing damage or grief to another person or persons [see also "wronging"]
Hu·man Rights (n.) 1. Legal claims that persons have on society simply on the basis of their being human [links]
Just War Theory (n.) 1. For a war to be just, it must (a) have a just cause, (b) be declared by a proper authority, (c) be executed with right intention, (d) have a reasonable chance of success, and (e) use proportional means.
Jus·tice (v.) 1. Fairness 2. The restoration of what has been lost [see also "forgiveness" and "reconciliation"]
Me·di·cal Hu·man·i·ties (n.) 1. The field of humanities studied from the perspective of medicine
Me·ta-e·thics (n.) 1. The study of the question of how we can talk about ethics at all 2. The study of the question of how we should talk about ethics at all
Mo·ra·l·ity (n.) 1. What ethics studies 2. The actual practice of acting rightly or wrongly 3. Culturally received mores, often unarticulated or implicit
Nar·ra·tive E·thics (n.) 1. The ethics of remembering, of doing history, with particular attention paid to how the "other" or the "stranger" is represented
Non·ma·le·fi·cence (v.) 1. Doing no harm
Post·mo·dern E·thics (n.) 1. The field of ethics with a nonfoundationalist approach, relying upon such methods as a hermeneutic of suspicion, deconstruction or genealogy 2. Ethics associated with such figures as Nietzsche, Foucault or Sartre
Pro·fes·sion (n.) 1. A self-organized field of work whose practitioners agree to publicly hold to certain ethical and educational standards 2. A public declaration of belief, faith, or opinion
Pub·lic (n.) 1. An ongoing conversation between citizens about the issues that affect the common good (Dewey) [see also "citizenship"]
Ra·cial dis·crim·i·na·tion (v.) 1. The practice of making unfavorable distinctions between the members of different ethnic groups or "races" [see also ableism]
Re·con·ci·li·a·tion (v.) 1. Bringing about both healing and justice between individuals or groups in conflict [see also "forgiveness" and "justice"]
Re·par·a·tions (n.) 1. Compensation payments for damage done in war by a defeated enemy. Reparations are often incorporated in discussion of racial reconciliation in both South Africa and the United States. (Oxford Encyclopedia)
Re·spon·si·bi·li·ty (n.) 1. Moral, legal, or mental accountability 2. Reliability or trustworthiness
Ser·vant Lea·der·ship (v.) 1. Being attuned to working in partnership with individuals and the communities in which you live [see also "virtue ethics" and "vocation"] [links] [more]
Si·tu·a·tion E·thics (n.) 1. A case-by-case school of ethics that focuses on an individual's context, with an eye toward certain ideals (say, love, justice, or well-being)
U·ti·li·ta·ri·an·ism (n.) 1. The moral theory that an action is morally right if and only if it produces at least as much good (utility) for all people affected by the action as any alternative action (Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy)
Val·ue (n.) 1. The worth of something
Vir·tue E·thics (n.) 1. An ethics based upon developing certain character traits—such as integrity, love or servant leadership, for example—as opposed to an ethics based upon rules or duty [see also "deontological ethics" and "feminist ethics"] [more]
Vo·ca·tion (v.) 1. The convergence of what you like to do, what you are good at doing, and what the world needs doing (A. Fleming) 2. Not 'any old job will do' [see also "servant leadership"]
Wrong·ing (v.) 1. Violating an agreed upon norm of behavior—an action that may or may not harm another person [see also "harming"]
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