Key Concepts

This page was last revised September 26, 2007
Click here for a list of the Key Concepts in some of the articles important for the First Major Paper.

Click here for a list of the Key Concepts in some of the focus articles for the Second Major Paper.

Note: The essays accessible below were composed for use in earlier versions of PHIL 320, when I was not using the textbook by Judith Boss. The definitions given in them may not agree 100 percent with what you will find in Boss's book. Unless I state otherwise, I shall try to follow the definitions given in the Boss book if they conflict with those given here. However, sometimes it is useful to look at the same topic from more than one perspective.

Some of the most important general ideas and vocabulary are discussed in the (usually quite brief) web pages to which you may link below. Other concepts are introduced and explained in the web pages devoted to various Ethical Theories. Still others are introduced and explained in the web pages in the Contemporary Issues section of this website.

Contents

Concept - Consequentialism - Ethics
Good, The - Good Life - Happiness - Interests
Justice - Morality - Needs - Nonconsequentialism
Personal Ethics - Persons - Punishment
Reparation - Responsibility - Retribution
Revenge - Right, The - Rights
Social Ethics

1. Concept (What is a concept, anyway?)

2. Basic Terms: Morality, Ethics, The Good, The Right, etc.

3. Types of ethical theories: Consequentialism

4. Types of ethical theories: Nonconsequentialism

5. Responsibility

6. Persons

7. Justice

8. Rights

9. The good (happiness, the good life)

10. Punishment (new: 9-15-03)

11. Reparation, Retribution, and Revenge (new: 9-30-03)

12. Needs, Wants, Interests, Motives (new: 2-11-04)