PL205: Terms and Definitions for exam 2
13 flashcards
- Emotivism
- Ethical theory stating that moral judgments do not express factual truths or beliefs, but rather emotional attitudes of approval or disapproval.
- Will of power
- The core driving force in human nature and reality according to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: Life strives to grow, master challenges, and surpass its current state rather than just survive.
- Herd mentality
- How collective group pressure, conformity, and the desire to belong override individual moral reasoning and personal conscience.
- Relativism
- A philosophical view that truth, knowledge, and morality are not absolute or universal, but depend on the specific cultural, social, or individual framework of assessment
- Subjectivism
- The philosophical view that individual mental activity, perception, and feeling are the ultimate framework of reality and knowledge, meaning there are no objective truths independent of the observer.
- Liquid Modernity
- Describes how moral responsibility and human values become unstable, flexible, and privatized in a fast-changing consumer society
- Social contract
- A social contract is an implicit agreement where individuals give up certain freedoms to a government or society in exchange for security, order, and the protection of their remaining rights
- Rights
- Rights are justified claims or entitlements that individuals can make upon other individuals, groups, or society.
- Hobbes
- was an English philosopher and political theorist, best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.
- Rousseau
- was a Genevan philosophe, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought.
- Freedom V. Secuity
- The ethics of freedom versus security involve balancing individual liberties against collective safety, often framed not as a simple zero-sum choice, but as interdependent conditions. (Hobbes).
- General Will
- The General Will is the collective desire of a political community aimed at the common good, famously popularized by the 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his 1762 work The Social Contract
- Categorical Imperative
- An unconditional moral law introduced by the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant that applies to all rational beings regardless of their personal desires or the consequences.