Definitions

Definitions to Know Morality: any major decisions that affect others becomes a moral decision. Immoral: refers to the way people ought not to act. It negatively affects others Amoral: refers to morally neutral actions (neither good nor bad). It can also describe attitudes/behaviours that show no sensitivity to the question of right or wrong. Principle: fundamental law, rule or code of conduct Conscience: the human capacity to weigh right and wrong Personal Integrity: the quality of showing moral principles by Knowing what is right or wrong and choosing the former.

Definitions 1.Teleological: having to do with the design or purpose of something. For example. A house is built to live in; a clock is made to keep time. But what of the “end” to which we as human begins aspire? Try thinking of this “end” not as an end point but as completion, as fullness. 2.Teleological thinking: seeking to understand the ultimate goal, purpose or end of something. (Teleology derives from the Greek root telos, meaning goal, purpose or end, and logos, meaning study.) For example, from a teleological perspective, adolescence is a stage of development on the way to mature adulthood. 3.Empiricism: a theory that says that knowledge comes from experience, or from evidence that can be perceived by the senses. 4.Subjective: relating to a person’s own perception and understanding of a reality; arising from the individual’s own mind, feelings, and perceptions. 5.Objective: relating to a sensible experience that is independent of any one individual’s thought, and that can be perceived by others.

Definitions 6.Ethics: A discipline that deals with the nature of the good, the nature of the human person, and criteria that we use for making right judgements. 7.Morality: A system of right conduct based on fundamentals beliefs and obligation to follow certain codes, norms, customs and habits of behaviour. A system of ideas of right and wrong conducts: religious morality; Christian morality. 8.Obligation: What one is bound by duty or contract to do. 9.Responsibility: Being morally accountable for one’s actions. Responsibility presumes knowledge, freedom, and the ability to choose and to act. 10.Revelation: The ways that God makes himself known to humankind. God is fully revealed in Jesus Christ. The sacred Scriptures, proclaimed within the Church, are the revealed Word of God. God also reveals self through people and indeed through all of creation. 11.Autonomy: independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions: the autonomy of the individual. To be a law unto oneself.

Definitions 13.Deontological ethics: the branch of ethics dealing with right action and the nature of duty, without regard to the goodness or value of motives or the desirability of the ends of any act. 14.Desire: to wish or long for; crave; want. 15.Duty: something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation. 16.Good: morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious. 17.Passion: any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate. 18.Universal Law: Act according to those maxims that are universally accepted. Eg. Murder is wrong.

Definitions 1.Action – “the realization of the power of human freedom” 2.Agent - “one who acts freely – accountable for their acts or omissions” 3.Determinism – human behaviour is a product – not freewill. Many influences on who we are (physical, social, cultural, etc.) 4.Free Will - the ability to act or make choices as a free and autonomous being and not solely as a result of compulsion or predestination 5.Freedom – “the human capacity to choose and act” 6.Intention – “something that somebody plans to do or achieve” 7.Logical Positivism – “if anything has meaning, it must have some kind of sensory experience to back it up” 8.Motive – “the reason for doing something or behaving in a particular way” 9.Predestination – “my behaviour is predetermined – either by God or someone else” 10.Responsibility – “this is the link between action, agent, freedom, knowledge, and capability” 11. Providence – the creative, sustaining and transforming self-gift of God that is constantly being poured out for us.

Definitions 11. Providence – God’s divine guidance or care, it maintains human freedom and free will because a relationship with God requires our participation 12. Grace - the creative, sustaining and transforming self-gift of God that is constantly being poured out for us. 12. Strong AI - believe that one day, computers may be able to think at a level equal to humans. 13. Weak AI - believe that it is possible that computers can simulate some thinking-life features, but no more 14. Naturalism – understands the material universe as a unified system with a chain of cause and effect situations. Everything can be explained through biological processes. 15. Practical Reasoning - moves beyond scientific and empirical knowledge to the moral dimension guiding human behaviour. What we ought to do. 16. Theoretical Reasoning - the area of reasoning where we come to know how the laws of nature, the laws of cause and effect, govern human behaviour. 17. Utilitarianism – The greatest good for the greatest number of people is what is right/good.