Glossary

Words and stuff

Relativism – The doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.

catalepsy – a medical condition characterized by a trance or seizure with a loss of sensation and consciousness accompanied by rigidity of the body.

Jeers – make rude and mocking remarks, typically in a loud voice.

Exogamic – pertaining to or characterized by the custom of marrying only outside the limits of a clan or tribe.

Enthology – The study of the characteristics of various peoples and the differences and relationships between them

Acquisitiveness – Excessive interest in acquiring money or material things

Hematocolpos – An accumulation of blood within the vagina.

colloquial – Used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.

Utilitarianism – the doctrine that an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct.

circumlocution – the use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive.

Greatest Happiness Principle – holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

dubious – hesitating or doubting. not to be relied upon, suspect.

enunciation – announcing, proclaiming, or making known; open attestation; declaration.

perfect duties – a perfect duty is one which one must always do.

appraisal respect – respecting someone by positively appraising them in light of some achievement or virtue they possess relative to some standard of success. 

recognition respect – respecting someone because of who or what they are, by giving them proper regard to a certain fact about them.

intrinsic property – a property that an object or a thing has of itself, independently of other things, including its context.

intrinsic value – the value that that thing has “in itself,” or “for its own sake,” or “as such,” or “in its own right

instrumental value – value in something or someone as a means to an end.

Deontology – duty – based ethics (Kant)

demure – (of a woman or her behavior) reserved, modest, and shy.

polity – a form or process of civil government or constitution.

salience – the quality of being particularly noticeable or important; prominence.

altruistic – showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish.

spoudaios – serious’ but can also mean ‘a serious person’ or ‘a thing worthy of serious attention

eudaimonia – sometimes translated “happiness” or “flourishing”—is a central concept in Aristotle’s ethics.

Feminism – is an intellectual, social, and political movement. The movement is very diverse, but one strand that runs through all varieties is the conviction that important intellectual, social, and political structures have been based on the assumption, sometimes implicit, sometimes
quite explicit, that being fully human means being male. Reexamination of these structures from a perspective that appreciates the interests,
values, styles, ideas, roles, methods, and emotions of women as well as men can lead to fruitful and in some cases radical reform.

Skeptic – The skeptic can be advocating suspension of claims of knowledge or certainty, suspension of belief, or positive disbelief.

virtue theory – This is an approach to
ethical theory that is frequently traced to Aristotle and contrasted with approaches drawn from, for example, Kant and Mill. A virtue theory
highlights questions about the nature of those character traits that are virtues—for example, courage. Such questions are seen as in some way
fundamental to the theory.

egoism – is the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own action.