chapter 2 vocab
Terms
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- hypothesis
- a provisional explanation that can be tested scientifically.
- scientific theory
- An explanation supported by many tests and accepted by a general consensus of scientists.
- instrumental value
- value or worth of objects that satisfy the needs and wants of moral agents. Objects that can be used as means to some desirable end.
- morals
- A set of ethical principles that guide or actions and relationships.
- universalists
- Those who believe that some fundamental ethical principles are universal and unchanging. These principles are valid regardless of the context or situation.
- anthropocentrism
- the belief that humans hold a special place in nature; being centered primarily on humans and human affairs.
- LULUs
- Locally Unwanted Land Uses. Toxic waste dumps, incinerators, and other sources of environmental, economic, or social degradation.
- environmental ethics
- a search for moral values and ethical principles in human relations with the natural world.
- controlled studies
- comparisons are made between experimental and control populations that are identical in every factor except the one variable being studied
- moral agents
- beings capable of making distinctions between right and wrong and acting accordingly. Those whom we hold responsible for their actions.
- environmental justice
- recognition that access to a clean, healthy environment is fundamental right of all human beings.
- inductive reasoning
- inferring general principles from specific examples.
- paradigms
- a model that provides a framework for interpreting observations.
- moral subjects
- Beings that are not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong or that are not able to act on moral principles and yet are capable of being wronged by others.
- environmental racism
- decisions that restrict certain people or groups of people to polluted or degraded environments on the basis of race.
- utilitarians
- Those who hold that an action is right that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
- parsimony
- If two explanations appear equally plausible, choose the simpler one.
- reproducibility
- Making an observation or particular result more that once.
- values
- Estimation of the worth of things. A set of ethical beliefs or preferences that determine or sense of right and wrong.
- biocentrism
- the belief that all creatures have rights and values; being centered on nature rather than humans
- toxic colonialism
- Shipping toxic wastes to a weaker or poorer nation.
- double-blind design
- neither the experimenter or the subjects know until after data has been gathered and analyzed which was the experimental treatment and which was the control.
- moral extensionism
- Expansion of our understanding of our inherent values or rights to persons, organisms, or things that might not be considered worthy of value or rights under some ethical philosophies.
- nihilists
- Those who believe that the world has no meaning or purpose other than a dark, cruel, unceasing struggle for power and existence.
- ecofeminism
- pluralistic, nonhierarchial, relationship oriented philosophy that suggests how humans could reconceive themselves and their relationships to nature in nondenominating ways as an alternative to patriarchal systems of domination.
- inherent value
- ethical values or rights that exist as an intrinsic or essential characteristics of a particular thing or class of things simply by the fact of their existence.
- relativists
- Those who believe moral principles are always dependent on particular situations.
- significant numbers
- Meaningful numbers whose accuracy can be verified.
- stewardship
- A philosophy that humans have a unique responsibility to manage, care for, and improve nature.
- science
- A process for producing knowledge, it depends on making precise observations.
- blind experiments
- those in which those carrying out experiments don't know until after the data has been gathered and analyzed which was the experimental treatment and which was the control.
- deductive reasoning
- deriving testable predictions about specific cases from general principles.