ETHICS TERMINOLOGY

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Terms Definition
Consistent display of ethical Behaviour. /Coherence in thoughts & action, conscience
Integrity & belief
Honesty Being truthful. / standing by what one say
Justice Dealing with others in fair manner
Prudence Follow own conscience
Temperance Trait of avoiding excess
accountability Formal Responsibility./ Answerability for one's action, conduct and outcome
principles of righteousness that governs actions of people in society. consists of
Dhamma -
Pradnya - perfection through knowledge and Karuna - compassion which is essential
Buddhist Ethics
for growth of society
Transparency international-
• Transparency is about shedding light on rules, plans, processes and actions.
Transparency • It is knowing why, how, what, and how much.
Transparency international- The abuse of power for personal gain or specific group
corruption interest.
Accountability Answerability supplemented with sanctions.
commitment Obligation towards a task through a formal agreement.
diligence virtue of hardwork
wisdom/sapience The trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight
Absolutism The holding of absolute principles in political, philosophical, or theological matters
Accountability The fact or condition of being accountable; responsibility
Act-utilitarianism
Agent-neutral
Answerability responsibility for explaining or justifying one's actions.
Aptitude A natural ability to do something.
Attitude A settled way of thinking or believing about a thing
Autonomy Freedom from external control or influence; independence.
Awareness knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.
Beneficence is a concept in research ethics which states that researchers should have
the welfare of the research participant as a goal of any clinical trial or other research
Beneficence study.
Benevolence Desire to do good to others; goodwill; charitableness; kindness
Caring Displaying kindness and concern for others.
Citizen's charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the
commitment of the organisation towards its citizens in respects of standard of
services, information, choice and consultation, non-discrimination and accessibility,
Citizen Charter grievance redress, courtesy and value for money.
A code of ethics and professional conduct outlines the ethical principles that govern
decisions and behaviour at a company or organization. they give general outlines of
how employees should behave, as well as specific guidance for handling issues like
Code of Ethics harassment, safety, and conflicts of interest
Cognitivism is the study in psychology that focuses on mental processes, including
how people perceive, think, remember, learn, solve problems, and direct their
Cognitivism attention to one stimulus rather than another.
Commensurable Measurable by the same standard.

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Commitment The quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.
Communal Communal harmony means that people of different religions, castes, creeds, sex and
Harmony different background live together in the society with love and peace amongst them
Compassion Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of others
Complacency An instance of usually unaware self-satisfaction.
Faith that, with proper encouragement and cultivation, people can learn to think for
themselves, to form rational viewpoints, draw reasonable conclusions, think
coherently and logically, persuade each other by reason and become reasonable
Confidence In persons, despite the deep-seated obstacles in the native character of the human
Reason mind and in society as we know it.
Conflict of A situation in which a person is in a position to derive personal benefit from actions
interest or decisions made in their official capacity.
A person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s
Conscience behaviour.
Consequentialism The doctrine that the morality of an action is to be judged solely by its consequences.
Considerations A fact or a motive taken into account in deciding something.
Contentment A state of happiness and satisfaction.
Contract theory is the study of how people and organizations construct and develop
Contract Theory legal agreements.
Convenience The state of being able to proceed with something without difficulty. ease. comfort
The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc.,
Courage without fear
Courage Polite, respectful, or considerate in manner.
Deontology The study of the nature of duty and obligation.
Desire A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.
Determination The quality of being determined; firmness of purpose.
Devotion Love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person or activity.
Dexterity Skill in performing tasks, especially with the hands.
Dignity The quality of being worthy of honour or respect.
A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more
Dilemma alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable.
Diligence Careful and persistent work or effort.
Discipline To obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience
Discretion The freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation.
Dissonance lack of agreement or harmony between people or things.
Diversity A range of different things.
Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-ethical
Divine Command theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to
Theory whether it is commanded by god.
Dominance Power and influence over others.
This principle aims to provide specific guidelines for determining when it is morally
Double effect permissible to perform an action in pursuit of a good end in full knowledge that the
Principle action will also bring about bad results.
Duty A moral or legal obligation; a responsibility.
Dynamism The quality of being characterized by vigorous activity and progress.
Eagerness Enthusiasm to do or to have something; keenness.

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Effectiveness The degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result; success.
Efficiency The state or quality of being efficient.
Egoism The fact of being excessively conceited or absorbed in oneself.
Elation Great happiness and exhilaration
Elegance The quality of being pleasingly ingenious and simple; neatness.
Emotional The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle
Intelligence interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.
An ethical theory which regards ethical and value judgements as expressions of
feeling or attitude and prescriptions of action, rather than assertions or reports of
Emotivism anything.
Empathy The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Enthusiasm Intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.
Equality The state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.
Equity represents fairness with consideration for weaker sections. it focuses on
equality of outcomes. this involves factoring in aspects of the system that have put
Equity particular groups at a disadvantage.
The practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political
Espionage and military information.
Ethics Moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.
The painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in
Euthanasia an irreversible coma
Evolutionary Relating to the gradual development of something.
Excellence The quality of being outstanding or extremely good.
The quality of being convenient and practical despite possibly being improper or
Expediency immoral; convenience.
Expressiveness The quality of effectively conveying a thought or feeling.
Having a consciousness of the need to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to
one’s own feelings or vested interests, or the feelings or vested interests of one’s
friends, community or nation; implies adherence to intellectual standards without
Fair mindedness reference to one’s own advantage or the advantage of one’s group.
Fairness Is the quality of making judgments that are free from discrimination.
Faith Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
The practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the
Favouritism expense of another.
Faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and
Fidelity support.
Firmness Resolute determination and strength of character.
Forgiveness The action or process of forgiving or being forgiven.
Fortitude Courage in pain or adversity.
Fraternity friendship and mutual support within a group
Freedom The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
Friendliness The quality of being friendly; affability.
Frugality the quality of being economical with money or food; thriftiness.
Generosity The quality of being kind and generous.
Good Good governance is an approach to government committed to creating a system that
Governance protects human rights and civil liberties.

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The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return
Gratitude kindness.
Happiness The state of being happy.
Harmony The state of being in agreement or concord.
Hedonism The pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence.
Helpfulness The quality of giving or being ready to give help.
Honesty Quality of being free of deceit; truthful and sincere.
A rationalist outlook attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or
Humanism supernatural matters.
Humanity The quality of being humane; benevolence; compassion
Humility The quality of having a modest or low view of one's importance.
A tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form
Identity Politics exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.
also called even-handedness or fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice holding that
decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias,
Impartiality prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons.
Wanting to discover as much as you can about things, sometimes in a way that
Inquisitiveness annoys people
Instrumental values can be defined as specific methods of behaviour. instrumental
Instrumental values are not an end goal, but rather provide the means by which an end goal is
Value accomplished
Integrity The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
Having rational control of one’s beliefs, values, and inferences, the ideal of critical
thinking is to learn to think for oneself, to gain command over one’s thought
processes. it entails a commitment to analysing and evaluating beliefs on the basis of
Intellectual reason and evidence, to question when it is rational to question, to believe when it is
Autonomy rational to believe, and to conform when it is rational to conform.
Having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs or
viewpoints toward which we have strong negative emotions and to which we have
not given a serious hearing. this courage is connected with the recognition that ideas
considered dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in
part) and that conclusions and beliefs inculcated in us are sometimes false or
misleading. to determine for ourselves which is which, we must not passively and
uncritically “accept” what we have “learned.” intellectual courage comes into play
here, because inevitably we will come to see some truth in some ideas considered
dangerous and absurd, and distortion or falsity in some ideas strongly held in our
Intellectual social group. we need courage to be true to our own thinking in such circumstances.
Courage the penalties for non-conformity can be severe.
Having a consciousness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others
in order to genuinely understand them, which requires the consciousness of our
egocentric tendency to identify truth with our immediate perceptions of long-
standing thought or belief. this trait correlates with the ability to reconstruct
accurately the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises,
assumptions, and ideas other than our own. this trait also correlates with the
willingness to remember occasions when we were wrong in the past despite an
Intellectual intense conviction that we were right, and with the ability to imagine our being
Empathy similarly deceived in a case-at-hand.
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Having a consciousness of the limits of one’s knowledge, including a sensitivity to
circumstances in which one’s native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively;
sensitivity to bias, prejudice and limitations of one’s viewpoint. intellectual humility
depends on recognizing that one should not claim more than one actually knows. it
does not imply spinelessness or submissiveness. it implies the lack of intellectual
Intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical
Humility foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one’s beliefs.
Recognition of the need to be true to one’s own thinking; to be consistent in the
intellectual standards one applies; to hold one’s self to the same rigorous standards
of evidence and proof to which one holds one’s antagonists; to practice what one
Intellectual advocates for others; and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in
Integrity one’s own thought and action.
Having a consciousness of the need to use intellectual insights and truths in spite of
difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite
the irrational opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and
Intellectual unsettled questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper
Perseverance understanding or insight.
Intelligence The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
Intrinsic Value Underlying, essential, inherent value.
Inventiveness The quality of being inventive; creativity.
Involvement Participating
Jingoism Extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy.
Justice Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness
Juvenile For or relating to young people.
Kindness The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.
Knowledge Awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
Lawfulness Being in harmony with the law
Is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the
Leadership achievement of a goal
Willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one’s own; open to
Liberal new ideas.
The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by
Liberty authority on one's way of life, behaviour, or political views.
Love An intense feeling of deep affection.
Loyalty A strong feeling of support or allegiance.
Meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical
Meta-ethics properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments.
Modesty The quality or state of being unassuming in the estimation of one's abilities.
Moral Attitude
Moral Turpitude
(also called moral objectivism or universal morality) is the meta-ethical position that
some system of ethics, or a universal ethic, applies universally, that is, for “all
Moral similarly situated individuals”, regardless of culture, race, sex, religion, nationality,
universalism sexual orientation, or any other distinguishing feature.
Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad
Morality behaviour.

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An ethical bank, also known as a social, alternative, civic, or sustainable bank, is a
bank concerned with the social and environmental impacts of its investments and
Morality Bank loans.
Motivation A reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.
The term 'natural law' is derived from the belief that human morality comes from
Natural law nature. everything in nature has a purpose, including humans.
A natural right is a right that is not conferred upon a person and cannot be withdrawn
Natural rights or taken away though, of course, it can be violated.
The practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends,
Nepotism especially by giving them jobs.
Non-partisanship Lack of bias, especially towards any particular political group.
Non-violence the use of peaceful means, not force, to bring about political or social change.
Striving (as far as possible or practicable) to reduce or eliminate biases, prejudices, or
Objectivity subjective evaluations by relying on verifiable data.
an act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or
Obligation commitment.
Is an overarching concept or philosophy that is characterized by an emphasis on
transparency and free unrestricted access to knowledge and information as well as
collaborative or cooperative management and decision making rather than a central
Openness authority.
Passion An intense desire or enthusiasm for something.
The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming
Patience annoyed or anxious.
Patriotism the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one's country.
Is an occurrence of harmony characterized by lack of violence, conflict behaviours
Peace and the freedom from fear of violence.
Perseverance Continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition
The fact of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or
Persistence opposition.
Persuade Induce (someone) to do something through reasoning or argument.
The action or process of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe
Persuasion something.
A condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of
Pluralism authority, etc., coexist.
It is more specifically a type of wisdom relevant to practical action, implying both
good judgement and excellence of character and habits, sometimes referred to as
Practical wisdom "practical virtue". Also known as phronesis
An approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their
Pragmatism practical application.
Privacy A state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people.
Probity The quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.
Prudence The quality of being prudent; cautiousness.
Public administration is the implementation of government policy and also an
Public academic discipline that studies this implementation and prepares civil servants for
Administration working in the public service.
Public shaming is a judicial punishment imposed on a convicted criminal that includes
Public Shaming humiliation in public instead of imprisonment
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Is the characteristic of being able to complete a required task or fulfil an obligation
before or at a previously designated time. “punctual” is often used synonymously
Punctuality with “on time”
Rationality Is the quality of being reasonable, based on facts or reason.
Reason The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments logically
Rectitude Morally correct behaviour or thinking; righteousness.
A feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over an occurrence or something
Regret that one has done or failed to do.
The doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society,
Relativism or historical context, and are not absolute.
Reliability The quality of being trustworthy or of performing consistently well.
Resilience The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments logically
Respect Regulating itself without intervention from external bodies.
Responsibility A moral obligation to behave correctly towards or in respect of.
Righteousness The quality of being morally right or justifiable.
Rights A moral or legal entitlement to have or do something.
Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism that says an action is right as it conforms
Rule- to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a
utilitarianism particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance
Sacrifice Give up (something valued) for the sake of other considerations.
Scientific temper Scientific temper refers to an attitude of logical and rational thinking.
Secular not connected with religious or spiritual matters.
Secularism the principle of separation of the state from religious institutions.
Self-discipline The ability to control one's feelings and overcome one's weaknesses.
Having little or no concern for oneself, especially with regard to fame, position,
Selflessness money
Self-regulating Regulating itself without intervention from external bodies.
Self-righteous Opening your heart, your mind, your resources to the needs of others
Sexual Behaviour characterized by the making of unwelcome and inappropriate sexual
Harassment remarks or physical advances in a workplace or other professional or social situation.
Simplicity The quality or condition of being easy to understand or do.
Social influence refers to the way in which individuals change their behaviour to meet
Social Influence the demands of a social environment.
Solidarity Mutual support within a group, especially among individuals with a common interest
Spirit of Service Opening your heart, your mind, your resources to the needs of others
Sycophancy Obsequious behaviour towards someone important in order to gain advantage.
Sympathy Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune.
Temperance control of your own behaviour
The ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one
Tolerance dislikes or disagrees with.
Transparency Operates in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed
The doctrine that actions are right if they are for the benefit of a majority. the
doctrine that an action is right in so far as it promotes happiness, and that the
Truth greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct.
Unity The state of being united or joined as a whole.
Uprightness The condition or quality of being honourable or honest; rectitude.

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The doctrine that actions are right if they are for the benefit of a majority. the
doctrine that an action is right in so far as it promotes happiness, and that the
Utilitarianism greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct.
Virtue A quality considered morally good or desirable in a person.
Vision The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom.
Work culture is a combination of qualities in an organization and its employees that
Work Culture arise from what is generally regarded as appropriate ways to think and act.
Work Life
Balance The division of one's time and focus between working and family or leisure activities.
Zeal Great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.

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