Terms : Hide Images
| 59063449 | moral | refers to what people consider good or bad, right or wrong | |
| 59063450 | nonmoral (amoral) | not pertaining to moral; a value-neutral descriptive claim or classification | |
| 59063451 | immoral | morally wrong, bad, or not right; a moral value judgment or prescriptive claim | |
| 59063452 | Kantian formalism | theory that knowledge is the result of the interaction between the mind and sensation and is structured by regulative ideas called categories | |
| 59063453 | critical philosophy | Kant's term for his effort to assess the nature and limits of "pure reason," unadulterated by experience, in order to identify the actual relationship of the mind to knowledge | |
| 59063454 | phenomenal reality | Kant's term for the world as we experience it | |
| 59063455 | noumenal reality | Kant's term for reality as it is, independent of our perceptions; what is commonly called "objective reality" | |
| 59063456 | theoretical reason | According to Kant, a function of reason confined to the empirical, phenomenal world | |
| 59063457 | practical reason | According to Kant, moral function of reason that produces religious feelings and intuitions based on knowledge of moral conduct | |
| 59063458 | hypothetical imperatives | propositions that tell us what to do under specific, variable conditions | |
| 59063459 | categorical imperative | According to Kant, a command that is universally binding on all rational creatures; the ultimate foundation of all moral law | |
| 59063460 | practical imperative | Kant's formulation of the categorical imperative based on the concept of dignity | |
| 59063461 | thought experiment | a way of using our imaginations to test hypothesis; we "think" rather than field-test a hypothesis, using reasoned imagination to provide the necessary conditions for the "experiment," and carefully reasoning out the most likely consequences according to our hypothesis | |
| 59063462 | original position | John Rawls's imaginary setting in which we can identify the fundamental principles of justice from an objective, impartial perspective, as rational agents, rather than as "interested parties"; similar to the "state of nature" in the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke | |
| 59063463 | veil of ignorance | John Rawls's mechanism for imaginatively entering into the original position by avoiding all personal considerations in the process of determining principles of justice; it is a problem-solving device that prevents us from knowing our social status, what property we own, what we like and don't like, how intelligent we are, what our talents and strengths are, and so on | |
| 61314623 | psychological hedonism | the belief that all decisions are based on considerations of pleasure and pain because it is psychologically impossible for human beings to do otherwise | |
| 61314624 | ethical hedonism | the belief that although it is possible to deliberately avoid pleasure or choose pain, it is morally wrong to do so | |
| 61314625 | principle of utility | always act to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number | |
| 61314626 | altruism | From Latin for ''other''; the capacity to promote the welfare of others; opposed to egoism | |
| 61314627 | absolute idealism (Hegelian) | a monistic philosophy that is based on an all-encompassing Absolute Spirit that is self-actualizing into perfection | |
| 61314628 | dialectic (Hegelian) | a three-step pattern in which an original idea, known as a thesis, struggles with a contrary idea, known as an antithesis, to produce a new synthesis that combines elements of both | |
| 61314629 | dialectical process (Hegelian) | internally governed evolutionary cycle in which progress occurs as the result of a struggle between to opposing conditions | |
| 61314630 | bourgeoisie | all those who do not produce anything, yet who own and control the means of production | |
| 61314631 | proletariat | all those whose labor produces goods and provides essential services, yet who do not own the means of production | |
| 61314632 | mystification | use of cloudy abstractions to create elaborate metaphysical systems that distract us from concrete material reality | |
| 61314633 | Marxist materialism | form of social determinism based on a reciprocal relationship between individuals and their environment; distinguished from strict materialism and hard determinism | |
| 61314634 | economic (as used by Marx) | the complete array of social relationships and arrangements that constitutes a particular social order | |
| 61314635 | substructure of society | the material substructure or base of society determines the nature of all social relationships, as well as religions, art, philosophies, literature, science, and government | |
| 61314636 | means of production | the forces of production are factories, equipment, technology, knowledge, and skill; a part of teh substructure of society | |
| 61314637 | relationships of production | relationships of production consist of who does what, who owns what, and how this affects members of both groups; a part of the substructure of society | |
| 61314638 | superstructure of society | the superstructure of a culture consists of the ideas and institutions (religious beliefs, education systems, philosophies, the arts, and such) compatible with and produced by the material substructure of the society | |
| 61314639 | capitalism | economic system in which the means of production are all (or mostly) privately owned and operated for profit under fully competitive conditions; tends to be accompanied by concentration of wealth and growth of great corporations | |
| 61314640 | surplus value | refers to the capital accumulated by owners; the result of keeping prices higher than the costs of production at the expense of workers | |
| 61314641 | co-opt | occurs when workers identify with the economic system that oppresses them by confusing the remote possibility of accumulating wealth with their actual living and working conditions; also refers to anyone who is somehow convinced to further interest that are to her or his ultimate disadvantage | |
| 61314642 | alienation | condition of workers separated from the products of their labor; primarily an objective state, but can also refer to not feeling "at one" with the product of labor | |
| 61314643 | eudaimonia | often translated as happiness; state of being fully aware, vital, alert | |
| 61314644 | species-life | fully human life lived productively and consciously; not alienated | |
| 61314645 | alienated life | unconscious, unspontaneous, and unfulfilled life; deprived of fundamental conditions necessary for self-actualization |
