Ascriptivism

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Ascriptivism is the view that human beings are to be held responsible for their social actions. [1] Ascriptivists hold that to say 'an action was voluntary on the part of an agent' is not to describe 'the act as caused in a certain way', but to ascribe it to the agent, or to hold the agent responsible for it. [2]

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In ethical philosophy, consequentialism is a class of normative, teleological ethical theories that holds that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right act is one that will produce a good outcome. Consequentialism, along with eudaimonism, falls under the broader category of teleological ethics, a group of views which claim that the moral value of any act consists in its tendency to produce things of intrinsic value. Consequentialists hold in general that an act is right if and only if the act will produce, will probably produce, or is intended to produce, a greater balance of good over evil than any available alternative. Different consequentialist theories differ in how they define moral goods, with chief candidates including pleasure, the absence of pain, the satisfaction of one's preferences, and broader notions of the "general good".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pragmatic ethics</span> Theory of normative philosophical ethics and meta-ethics

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Abilities are powers an agent has to perform various actions. They include common abilities, like walking, and rare abilities, like performing a double backflip. Abilities are intelligent powers: they are guided by the person's intention and executing them successfully results in an action, which is not true for all types of powers. They are closely related to but not identical with various other concepts, such as disposition, know-how, aptitude, talent, potential, and skill.

References

  1. "Ismbook.com". ascriptivism. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  2. Peter Geach. "Hist-analytic.com". ascriptivism. Retrieved 2012-04-01.

Further reading