A term utilitarians borrowed from economics to indicate how much utility we should try to create. Whereas maximizing utilitarians claim that we should strive to maximize utility, satisficing utilitarians claim that we need only try to produce enough utility to satisfy everyone. It’s analogous to the difference between taking a course with the goal of getting an "A" and taking it pass-fail.

There are two senses of this term. In ancient Greece, the skeptics were inquirers who were dedicated to the investigation of concrete experience and wary of theories that might cloud or confuse that experience. In modern times, skeptics have been wary of the trustworthiness of sense experience. Thus classical skepticism was skeptical primarily about theories, while modern skepticism is skeptical primarily about experience.

An extreme version of relativism, which maintains that each person’s beliefs are relative to that person alone and cannot be judged from the outside by any other person.

Literally, "above the call of duty." A supererogatory act is one that is morally good and that goes beyond what is required by duty. Some ethical theories, such as certain versions of utilitarianism, that demand that we always do the act that yields the most good have no room for supererogatory acts.

An instance of a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed propositions (premises). In Philosophy of Religion the Ontological Argument is an a priori syllogism.

The primary principle in Aquinas' Natural Law theory, that human beings seek "to do good and avoid evil". The nature of the good we seek is given by the five primary precepts (preservation of life, procreation, education, living in society and worship of God). I've had to separate this word as for some reason it's messing up every handout in which it appears - sorry!

A synthetic statement is testable in the real world - so provable true or false, not true by definition (an analytic statement). John is not married is a synthetic statement, John is a bachelor is analytic. It makes no sense to ask - "I know he's a bachelor, but is he married?" (I've had to separate the word which should be one word because for some reason it's messing up every handout with this word - sorry!)