Moral Choice: A Christian View of Ethics

Glossary

235 Glossary Actual sin. In Catholic tradition, the sin that the person himself or herself commits. Aim. The focus or goal of the moral agent on a particular consequence, called the end. Moral situations often include a nexus of consequences, not all of which are the specific goal of the decision maker. Alter Christi. Literally, “another Christ.” In Christian thinking, the individual person brings Christ into the present, fleshed out in his or her reality. Anthropology. The study of the characteristics of the human person. Autonomy. Self-determination. Autonomy embodies both the fundamental and inherent core freedom of a person and the existential freedom to deliberate and choose in particular case. Basic goods. A list of human-worthy values that some philosophers believe may not be prioritized or weighed one against one another in moral choice. Canon. A list of books considered by a particular religious group to be inspired by God. Catechism of the Catholic Church. A summary of the teachings of the Catholic Church, produced after the Second Vatican Council. Categorical acts. The specific moral actions that the person performs. These acts shape the character of the person and actualize his or her fundamental option. 236 Glossary Categorical imperative. Kant’s notion that a person should act in a specific circumstance only in a manner that what he or she does would be a universal maxim. Commodification. Reducing the human person to a thing, a commodity. Common good. The idea that all persons are entitled to participate in the benefit of societal goods. Common good demands the protection of the dignity and rights of all, not just of the majority. Community. The group with which a person identifies, that shares values, rituals , rules. Communities preserve their values, reinforce them, pass them on. Healthy communities change and develop. Conscience. That human capacity to sort values and disvalues and to apply this knowledge to particular actions. The conscience is able to choose and to judge those actions that actualize what is objectively right and good in concrete situations. The awareness of the moral status of one’s behavior. Conscience, freedom of. The basic belief that persons have core freedom as well as the categorical freedom in their choice of concrete acts. In the Catholic tradition, this freedom is seen as responsible not to relativistic notions of right and wrong but rather to objective value. Consequences.Thesumoftheresultsofaparticularaction.Theconsequences include the end at which the decision maker aims, the means chosen to achieve this end, and the intention or reason the person has for acting. Some consequences, while not chosen, are accepted by the decision maker. Proportion would judge an action as moral only if the results have more good than evil in them. Nonmoral evil in the consequences is regretted. Consistent ethic of life. A term that describes the philosophy of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. This position counsels respect for all human life, from conception to death. It is not an affirmation of vitalism, which would insist on aggressively pursuing the continuation of purely biological life. Core freedom. Conscience as it functions in its most radical form, in situations of grave moral decision. Glossary 237 Cultural mores. Common practice or accepted standards of behavior within a particular group. Custom or cultural norms do not always reflect objective values. Examples: acceptance of slavery or abuse of spouses in certain cultures. Deontology. From the Greek, deon, “duty.” The theory of normative ethics that finds moral rightness in doing one’s duty. Evaluation of what is right precedes the action and is never determined by good or bad consequences. Descriptive ethics. The study of what people actually do, without judgment as to the morality of those actions. It studies empirical data—the “is.” Example : people in some primitive cultures practice cannibalism. Descriptive ethics does not make a moral judgment on cultural practices. Disvalue. Material reality or personal trait (formal) that in itself incorporates ontic or premoral evil. (Example of material disvalue: killing; formal disvalue : hating.) Divine command. A theory of normative ethics that right is based in what God demands of human beings. Such commands do not necessarily require a logical or discernible basis for rightness. Their authority rests in God. Ekklesia. Literally “church.” Refers not to the building but to the gathered community. End. The specific consequence that the person wishes to actualize. Most decisions result in consequences that actualize both the end of the agent (person acting) and other...