Key Terms
This page contains a list of the key terms introduced in Chapter 1 as the appear in the text. (Ghillyer, 2012)
Ethics: The manner by which we try to live our lives according to a standard of "right" or "wrong" behavior-in both how we think and behave toward others and how we would like them to think and behave toward us.
Society: A structured community of people bound together by similar traditions and customs.
Culture: A particular set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices that characterize a group of individuals.
Value System: A set of personal principals formalized into a code of behavior.
Intrinsic Value: The quality by which a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own sake, whether anything comes from that pursuit or not.
Instrumental Value: The quality by which the pursuit of one value is a good way to reach another value. For example, money is valued for what it can buy rather than for itself.
The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Virtue Ethics: A concept of living your life according to a commitment to the achievement of a clear ideal--what sort of person would I like to become and how do I go about becoming that person?
Universal Ethics: Actions that are taken out of duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal rather than based on the needs of the situation, since the universal principals are seen to apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time.
Applied Ethics: The study of how ethical theories are put into practice.
Ethical Dilemma: A situation in which there is no obvious right or wrong decision, but rather a right or right answer.
Ethical Reasoning: Looking at the information available to us in resolving an ethical dilemma, and drawing conclusions based on that information in relation to our own ethical standards.
Ethics: The manner by which we try to live our lives according to a standard of "right" or "wrong" behavior-in both how we think and behave toward others and how we would like them to think and behave toward us.
Society: A structured community of people bound together by similar traditions and customs.
Culture: A particular set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices that characterize a group of individuals.
Value System: A set of personal principals formalized into a code of behavior.
Intrinsic Value: The quality by which a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own sake, whether anything comes from that pursuit or not.
Instrumental Value: The quality by which the pursuit of one value is a good way to reach another value. For example, money is valued for what it can buy rather than for itself.
The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Virtue Ethics: A concept of living your life according to a commitment to the achievement of a clear ideal--what sort of person would I like to become and how do I go about becoming that person?
Universal Ethics: Actions that are taken out of duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal rather than based on the needs of the situation, since the universal principals are seen to apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time.
Applied Ethics: The study of how ethical theories are put into practice.
Ethical Dilemma: A situation in which there is no obvious right or wrong decision, but rather a right or right answer.
Ethical Reasoning: Looking at the information available to us in resolving an ethical dilemma, and drawing conclusions based on that information in relation to our own ethical standards.