Definitions of Respected Ethical Theories

Respect for Persons
Always treat each person as an end and never as a means. (Immanuel Kant)

Categorical Imperative
Act in the way that you would wish to become a universal law. (Immanuel Kant)

Utilitarian
Act always in the way that will lead to the greatest happiness for the greatest number. (John Stuart Mill)

Human Rights
Each human has, at birth, certain rights that cannot be taken away. Various groups, including the UN, have tried to determine what these are.

Buddhist
To avoid suffering, we must recognize that there is no self, we must practice letting go of attachment, we must practice non-interference (non-action when possible), and we must be non-violent and loving to all sentient beings. (Kenneth Inada)

Native American
Natural law is pre-eminent; nearly everything is alive; we are all one family; life goes in cycles and ought to go in cycles; everything has standing (all living things ought to have a voice and be considered in decisions); when we take, we must give; we should take only what we need and leave the rest; the good life is continual rebirth. (Winona LaDuke)

African
The family, ethnic group, or clan is the basic unit; that unit has the right to the necessities of life on an equal level with other families, ethnic groups, or clans. Perhaps one could formulate the rule by saying—act in the way that preserves the sustainability, integrity, and beauty of the human community. (Claude Ake)

Land
We should act in the way that would protect the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. (Aldo Leopold)

Virtue
Ethics grow out of the practice of moderation. One who has long practiced ethical behavior will act correctly in stressful situations and will follow the Golden Mean, the balance between extremes. For example, one will be courageous but not foolishly risk-taking or cowardly; one will be moderate in eating, not anorexic or gluttonous. (Aristotle)

Care
One has special duties beyond the duties of justice to care for and nurture those closest to one, those of one’s own family, and those who are dependant on one. (Carol Gilligan)

Terms from Classical Ethics

Virtue Ethics
Divine command theory of ethics
Egoism
Deontological ethics
Utilitarian theory
Natural behavior theory
Human nature theory
Relativism in ethics
Ethics of equanimity
Enlightenment ethics
Hedonism
Idealism
Materialism
Normative ethics
Form
Metaphysics
Sophists
Golden Mean
Happiness (for Aristotle)
Intellectual virtues
Moral virtues
Virtue
Epicureanism
Moral evils
Natural evils
Revelation
Cosmological argument
Teleological ethics
Natural Law
Arhat
Duhkha
Four Nobel Truths
Enlightenment

Li
Tao
Te
Yang
Yin
Yi
Tao To Ching
WuWei

Websites to use for term learning and comparison

http://faculty.erau.edu/schliepr/ethics/glossary.html

http://www.ethics.org/glossary.html
with links to global ethics resources

http://www.onlineethics.org/

http://www.fccc.edu/ethics/Glossary_of_Ethics_Terms.html

http://ecampus.bentley.edu/dept/ph/ethicsglossary.html

http://privacy.med.miami.edu/glossary/x_ism_guide.htm
medical ethics

http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/ethics/characters.html
for Aristotle

http://classes.kumc.edu/som/aamc/icm851/ethics/ethics_terms.htm

http://www.dnd.ca/ethics/training/terms_e.asp
military ethics

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/relg/christiantheology/Ethics/legalese.html
Spinoza

http://www.catawba.k12.nc.us/pages/sites/edwebsites/computerskills/quizzes/ethics_integrity.htm
An ethics quiz we could evaluate for its ethical biases