chap. 2 key terms
Terms
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- Relativists
- those who believe moral principles are always dependent on the particular situation.
- Instrumental value
- value or worth of objects that satisfy the needs and wants of moral agents. Objects that can be used as a means to some desirable end.
- Biocentrism
- the belief that all creatures have rights and values; being centered on nature rather than humans.
- Blind experiments
- those in which those carrying out the experiments don't know until after data has been gathered and analyzed which was the experimental treatment and which was the control.
- Universalists
- those who believe that some fundamental ethical principles are universal and unchanging.
- Moral subjects
- beings that are not capable of distinguishing between right or wrong or that are not able to act on moral principles and yet are capable of being wronged by others.
- Scientific theory
- an explanation supported by many tests and accepted by a general consensus of scientists.
- Double-blind design
- one in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects know until after data has been gathered and analyzed which was the experimental treatment and which was the control.
- Nihilists
- those who believe the world has no meaning or purpose other than a dark, cruel, unceasing struggle for power and existence.
- Reproducibility
- making an observation or obtaining a particular result more than once.
- Moral agents
- beings capable of making distinctions between right and wrong and acting accordingly.
- Hypothesis
- a provisional explanation that can be tested scientifically.
- Moral extensionism
- expansion of our understanding of inherent value or rights to persons, organisms, or things that might not be considered worthy of value or rights under some ethical philosophies.
- Environmental ethics
- a search for moral values and ethical principles in human relations with the natural world.
- Controlled studies
- those in which comparisons are made between experimental and control populations that are identical (as far as possible) in every factor except the one variable being studied.
- Inherent value
- ethical values or rights that exist as an intrinsic or essential characteristic of a particular thing or class of things simply by the fact of their existence.
- Parsimony
- if two explanations appear equally plausible, choose the simpler one.
- Ecofeminism
- a philosophy that suggests how humans could reconceive themselves and their relationships to nature in nondominating ways.
- Significant numbers
- meaningful numbers whose accuracy can be verified.
- Paradigms
- a model that provides a framework for interpreting observations.
- Values
- an estimation of the worth of things; a set of ethical beliefs and preferences that determine our sense of right and wrong.
- Toxic colonialism
- shipping toxic wastes to a weaker or poorer nation.
- Inductive reason
- inferring general principles from specific examples.
- Utilitarians
- those who hold that an action is right that produces the greatest good frot eh greatest number of people.
- Environmental racism
- decisions that restrict certain people or groups of people to polluted or degraded environments on the basis of race.
- Science
- derived from "knowing" in Latin, is a process for producing knowledge.
- Morals
- a set of ethical principles that guide our actions and relationships.
- Deductive reasoning
- deriving testable predictions about specific cases from general principles.
- LULUs
- Locally Unwanted Land Uses, such as toxic waste dumps, incinerators, smelters, airports, freeways, and other sources of environmental, economic, or social degradation.
- Environmental justice
- a recognition that access to a clean, healthy environment is a fundamental right of all human beings.
- Stewardship
- a philosophy that holds that humans have a unique responsibility to manage, care for, and improve nature.
- Anthropocentrism
- the belief that humans hold a special place in nature; being centered primarily on humans and human affairs.