Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kinds of Valuation
AESTHETICS- greek word aesthesis meaning “sense” or “feeling”
- Judgements of personal approval & disapproval
ETIQUETTE- right and wrong actions that are not quite grave enough
to belong to the study of ethics
Reasoning
A person’s fear of punishment or desire for reward can provide him a reason for acting in a
certain way.
PINCIPLES- rationally established grounds by which one justifies and maintain her moral
decisions and judgments
MORAL THEORY- is a systematic attempt to establish the validity of maintaining certain moral
principles.
Sources of Authority
LAW.
POSITIVE LAW- refers to the different rules and regulations that are posited or put forward by
an authority figure that require compliance.
“the law cannot tell us what to pursue, only what to avoid”
RELIGION.
DIVINE COMMAND THEORY- the divinity called God, Allah or Supreme Being commands
and one is obliged to obey her creator.
CULTURE.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM- what is ethically acceptable or unacceptable is relative to or
dependent in one’s culture
1. SUBJECTIVISM – the recognition that the individual thinking person (the subject) is at
the heart of all moral valuations.
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM- a theory that describes the underlying dynamics behind
all human actions. The idea is that “whether or not the person admits it, one’s actions are
ultimately always motivated by self-serving desire.
3. ETHICAL EGOISM- prescribes that we should make our own ends, our own interests, as
the single overriding concern.