Glossary

  1. Argument: A set of reasons in support of a claim
  2. Conclusion: A claim intended to be supported by an argument
  3. Premise: Claims given as reasons for thinking that the conclusion of the argument is true
  4. Intrinsic: Value that is innate and has an end, ex. happiness
  5. Extrinsic: Value that is a means or a tool to the end, ex. money
  6. A priori: Finding knowledge through logic
  7. A posteriori: Finding knowledge through experience
  8. Deductive Argument:
    • Certain, can either be valid or invalid
    • Makes specific claims based on general truths
    • Based on a conclusion on analysis of language condition or rules
  9. Inductive Argument
    • Predicts the future based on the past
    • Probability
    • Makes general claims based on specific claims
    • Can be strong or weak, but not certain
  10. Diversity: Variation in analogy
  11. Moral Relativism/Absolutism: their (thought holder’s) truth is the truth, but moral relativists may not agree with each other. Someone who feels one sure way about a matter no matter the circumstance, like PETA, the NRA, communists, and the Pope
  12. Descriptive Relativism: Defends morally gray situations by stating that different cultures believe in different things than our culture, thus justifying them in their thoughts for the other culture
  13. Ethical Relativism: (Cultural Relativism) Right/wrong has nothing to do with anything except for that which a culture believes in.
  14. Prescriptive: How things should or ought to be, moral judgements prescribe
  15. Descriptive: How things really are/is
  16. Happiness/Pleasure:
    • (J.S. Mill) Not pain, contemptment, wellbeing
  17. Empiricist: Empiricists believe that knowledge comes from the senses, from our own experiences. To find what is right or wrong, empiricists believe that you need to use your senses and wisdom to come to a decision
  18. Hedonist: Someone who believes in working towards personal pleasures and happiness is the main focus of life
  19. Greatest Happiness Principle/GHP: (J.S. Mill) No one person’s happiness is greater than another’s, and everyone should work towards the happiness of the greatest amount of people or for society as a whole, focuses on a society that decreases the chances of pain for everyone equally
  20. Categorical Imperative (CI): (Immanuel Kant) Act as if the rule of your actions was to become the universal law, regardless of the consequences
  21. Freedom: (J.S. Mill) Rationality, the ability to use reason
  22. Will: (J.S. Mill) Part of a person that reasons about and decides what he/she/they will do
  23. Principle of Impartiality: (J.S. Mill) equal amounts of happiness are equally desirable
  24. Consequentialism: The rightness of actions depends heavily on their consequences
  25. Non-consequentialism: Action sare wrong in themselves, regardless of any outcome
  26. Karma: Cycle of cause and effect
  27. Attachment: An unhealthy fixation
  28. Detachment: “Non-attachment,” not unhealthily attached to a person, feeling, substance, etc.
  29. Samsara: Death and rebirth, a cycle that continues on in Buddhism
  30. Suffering: Life is said to be suffering, with attachments and desires, that will eventually cause pain, which death will not sure due to samsara

All definitions are taken from notes in class.

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