Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States . It is also used in some Southeastern Asian countries with European colonial history, such as Indonesia and the Philippines , and African countries such as Zambia and South Africa , although sometimes translations of these phrases are used instead of the Latin originals. The honors distinction should not be confused with the honors degrees offered in some countries, or with honorary degrees .
174-448: John Bordley Rawls ( / r ɔː l z / ; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral , legal and political philosopher in the modern liberal tradition . Rawls has been described as one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century. In 1990, Will Kymlicka wrote in his introduction to the field that "it is generally accepted that the recent rebirth of normative political philosophy began with
348-566: A personal property right, but this is defended in terms of moral capacities and self-respect, rather than an appeal to a natural right of self-ownership (this distinguishes Rawls's account from the classical liberalism of John Locke and the libertarianism of Robert Nozick ). Rawls argues that a second principle of equality would be agreed upon to guarantee liberties that represent meaningful options for all in society and ensure distributive justice. For example, formal guarantees of political voice and freedom of assembly are of little real worth to
522-433: A " veil of ignorance ": each lacks knowledge, for example, of their gender, race, age, intelligence, wealth, skills, education and religion. The only thing that a given member knows about themselves is that they are in possession of the basic capacities necessary to fully and willfully participate in an enduring system of mutual cooperation; each knows they can be a member of the society. Rawls posits two basic capacities that
696-475: A "bat-like horror of the limelight," did not become a public intellectual despite his fame. He instead remained committed mainly to his academic and family life. In 1995, he had the first of several strokes, severely impeding his ability to continue to work. He was nevertheless able to complete The Law of Peoples , the most complete statement of his views on international justice and published in 2001 shortly before his death Justice as Fairness: A Restatement ,
870-750: A bonus difficult question at the oral examination. In Italy, 110 e lode (at institutions using a 110-point system) is the highest rank that can be achieved during the academic studies, and corresponds usually to a final score greater than 110/110 (the specific threshold varies from university to university). Up to 3 bonus points can be awarded for merits, e.g. having an average exams score greater than 28.5/30 (95% equivalent), excellent final project or for graduating on time. More notations include: bacio e abbraccio accademico ("academic kiss and embrace"), menzione d'onore ("honor mention"), and dignità di stampa ("dignity of printing"), and were given based on various university-specific requirements, but without
1044-426: A certain manner by being wholeheartedly committed to this manner. Virtues contrast with vices , which are their harmful counterparts. Virtue theorists usually say that the mere possession of virtues by itself is not sufficient. Instead, people should manifest virtues in their actions. An important factor is the practical wisdom, also called phronesis , of knowing when, how, and which virtue to express. For example,
1218-428: A certain standpoint. Moral standpoints may differ between persons, cultures, and historical periods. For example, moral statements like "Slavery is wrong" or "Suicide is permissible" may be true in one culture and false in another. Some moral relativists say that moral systems are constructed to serve certain goals such as social coordination. According to this view, different societies and different social groups within
1392-399: A characterization of what is good and then define what is right in terms of what is good. For example, classical utilitarianism says that pleasure is good and that the action leading to the most overall pleasure is right. Consequentialism has been discussed indirectly since the formulation of classical utilitarianism in the late 18th century. A more explicit analysis of this view happened in
1566-439: A child's development. This is because reasons based upon the interpretation of sacred text are non-public (their force as reasons relies upon faith commitments that can be reasonably rejected), whereas reasons that rely upon the value of providing children with environments in which they may develop optimally are public reasons—their status as reasons draws upon no deep, controversial conception of human flourishing. Rawls held that
1740-418: A contribution to "ideal theory," the determination of "principles that characterize a well-ordered society under favorable circumstances." In Political Liberalism (1993), Rawls turned towards the question of political legitimacy in the context of intractable philosophical, religious, and moral disagreement amongst citizens regarding the human good. Such disagreement, he insisted, was reasonable—the result of
1914-401: A controversial conception of human flourishing, it is unclear how a liberal state ordered according to it could possibly be legitimate. The intuition animating this seemingly new concern is actually no different from the guiding idea of A Theory of Justice , namely that the fundamental charter of a society must rely only on principles, arguments and reasons that cannot be reasonably rejected by
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#17327719591612088-470: A diversity of viewpoints. A universal moral norm is seen as valid if all rational discourse participants do or would approve. This way, morality is not imposed by a single moral authority but arises from the moral discourse within society. This discourse should aim to establish an ideal speech situation to ensure fairness and inclusivity. In particular, this means that discourse participants are free to voice their different opinions without coercion but are at
2262-523: A doctoral dissertation titled A Study in the Grounds of Ethical Knowledge: Considered with Reference to Judgments on the Moral Worth of Character . His PhD included a year of study at Cornell. Rawls taught at Princeton until 1952 when he received a Fulbright Fellowship to Christ Church at Oxford University , where he was influenced by the liberal political theorist and historian Isaiah Berlin and
2436-715: A final exam. A silver medal is awarded to high school students who have one or two grades of 4 ( Russian : хорошо horosho , "good", being second highest grade) on their final exams or other subjects as listed in the high school diploma ( аттестат о (полном) среднем образовании attestat o (polnom) srednem obrazovanii ). In Singapore , the Latin honors, cum laude , magna cum laude and summa cum laude are used by Singapore Management University . Graduates from Singapore Management University have to achieve GPAs of 3.4, 3.6 and 3.8 out of 4.3 (SMU awards 4.3 for A+ grades) respectively and without any exceptions to qualify for
2610-427: A fundamental part of reality and can be reduced to other natural properties, such as properties describing the causes of pleasure and pain . Latin honors#United States The system usually has three levels of honor (listed in order of increasing merit): cum laude , magna cum laude , and summa cum laude . Generally, a college or university's regulations set out definite criteria a student must meet to obtain
2784-479: A general standpoint of what is objectively right and wrong. In a slightly different sense, the term ethics can also refer to individual ethical theories in the form of a rational system of moral principles, such as Aristotelian ethics , and to a moral code that certain societies, social groups, or professions follow, as in Protestant work ethic and medical ethics . The English word ethics has its roots in
2958-523: A given honor. For example, the student might be required to achieve a specific grade point average, submit an honors thesis for evaluation, be part of an honors program , or graduate early. Each school sets its own standards. Since these standards vary, the same level of Latin honors conferred by different institutions can represent different levels of achievement. Similarly, some institutions grant equivalent (or additional) non-Latin honors to undergraduates. The University of Wisconsin–Madison , for example, has
3132-607: A healthy incentive to the best work without exciting an excessive spirit of emulation. The new system of administration, of which the above is a part, is so original and peculiar that it is known as the Amherst System. In the UK , the Latin cum laude is used in commemorative Latin versions of degree certificates sold by a few universities (e.g. the University of Edinburgh ) to denote a bachelor's degree with honours , but
3306-447: A high minimum grade point average. Sometimes it is lost, despite a high average mark, when the student gets a mark of 6 or lower for one of the many exams (on a scale of 1–10, where 10 is the highest). It may also be awarded based on the weighted average of first achieved grades for each subject only. Generally, less than 2% receive the cum laude distinction. It is also possible to receive a PhD degree cum laude , although this honor
3480-515: A lack of practical wisdom may lead courageous people to perform morally wrong actions by taking unnecessary risks that should better be avoided. Different types of virtue ethics differ on how they understand virtues and their role in practical life. Eudaimonism is the original form of virtue theory developed in Ancient Greek philosophy and draws a close relation between virtuous behavior and happiness. It states that people flourish by living
3654-758: A legal value. In Malta , for Bachelor Honours degrees summa cum laude refers to first class honours, magna cum laude refers to second class honours (upper division), cum laude refers to second class honours (lower division), whilst bene probatus refers to third class honours. Professional degrees lasting longer than the standard three years such as the five year Bachelor of Pharmacy are awarded egregia cum laude . Postgraduate diplomas and master's degrees may be awarded as pass with distinction ( summa cum laude ), pass with merit ( magna cum laude ), or pass ( bene probatus ). In Mexico , cum laude (also known as mención honorífica in Spanish)
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#17327719591613828-549: A means to promote their self-interest. Ethical egoism is often criticized as an immoral and contradictory position. Normative ethics has a central place in most religions . Key aspects of Jewish ethics are to follow the 613 commandments of God according to the Mitzvah duty found in the Torah and to take responsibility for societal welfare . Christian ethics puts less emphasis on following precise laws and teaches instead
4002-611: A more general principle. Many theories of normative ethics also aim to guide behavior by helping people make moral decisions . Theories in normative ethics state how people should act or what kind of behavior is correct. They do not aim to describe how people normally act, what moral beliefs ordinary people have, how these beliefs change over time, or what ethical codes are upheld in certain social groups. These topics belong to descriptive ethics and are studied in fields like anthropology , sociology , and history rather than normative ethics. Some systems of normative ethics arrive at
4176-425: A perfect grade on all final examinations. Usually less than 2% of all graduating students accomplish this (depending on the university and year). In military schools, a "red diploma" may be accompanied by a gold medal ( summa cum laude ) for outstanding performance. Russian high schools also award a gold medal to the student who achieves a perfect score in all final examinations and in all other subjects not requiring
4350-508: A period not exceeding the standard period of study by more than one year. Other distinctions such as magna cum laude or cum laude are not used. Alternatively, the phrase s vyznamenáním , which means "with honours", is substituted for the usual summa cum laude . The Czech universities usually do not award any Latin honours to its graduates in rigorosum and doctoral study programmes. In Estonia , up until 2010 both summa cum laude and cum laude were used. Summa cum laude
4524-550: A person should tell the truth even in specific cases where lying would lead to better consequences. Another disagreement is between actual and expected consequentialism. According to the traditional view, only the actual consequences of an act affect its moral value. One difficulty of this view is that many consequences cannot be known in advance. This means that in some cases, even well-planned and intentioned acts are morally wrong if they inadvertently lead to negative outcomes. An alternative perspective states that what matters are not
4698-401: A pleasurable experience has a high value if it has a high intensity and lasts for a long time. A common criticism of Bentham's utilitarianism argued that its focus on the intensity of pleasure promotes an immoral lifestyle centered around indulgence in sensory gratification. Mill responded to this criticism by distinguishing between higher and lower pleasures. He stated that higher pleasures, like
4872-403: A political account of justice and just institutions. Relational approaches to the question of justice, by contrast, seek to examine the connections between individuals and focuses on their relations in societies, with respect to how these relationships are established and configured. Rawls further argued that these principles were to be 'lexically ordered' to award priority to basic liberties over
5046-413: A profound influence on theories of distributive justice both in theory and in practice, the generally anti- meritocratic sentiment of Rawls's thinking has not been widely accepted by the political left. He consistently held the view that naturally developed skills and endowments could not be neatly distinguished from inherited ones, and that neither could be used to justify moral desert . Instead, he held
5220-426: A range of critical responses contesting the universalist basis of Rawls' original position . While these criticisms, which emphasize the cultural and social roots of normative political principles, are typically described as communitarian critiques of Rawlsian liberalism, none of their authors identified with philosophical communitarianism . In his later works, Rawls attempted to reconcile his theory of justice with
5394-415: A reasonably rejectable (Kantian) conception of human flourishing as the free development of autonomous moral agency. The core of Political Liberalism is its insistence that in order to retain its legitimacy, the liberal state must commit itself to the "ideal of public reason ." This roughly means that citizens in their public capacity must engage one another only in terms of reasons whose status as reasons
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5568-609: A response to criticisms of A Theory of Justice . Rawls died from heart failure at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts , on November 24, 2002, at age 81. He was buried at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife, four children, and four grandchildren. Rawls published three main books. The first, A Theory of Justice , focused on distributive justice and attempted to reconcile
5742-620: A seminary to study for the Episcopal priesthood and wrote an "intensely religious senior thesis ( BI) ." In his 181-page long thesis titled "Meaning of Sin and Faith," Rawls attacked Pelagianism because it "would render the Cross of Christ to no effect." Rawls graduated from Princeton in 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude . Rawls enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 1943. During World War II , Rawls served as an infantryman in
5916-634: A series of plain English grading honors based on class standing. Some colleges and universities, notably including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , Reed College , and Yale Law School , do not use honors at all. These honors, when they are used, are almost always awarded to undergraduate students earning their bachelor's degree, and, with the exception of law school graduates, much more rarely to graduate students receiving their master's or doctorate degree. The honor
6090-790: A single principle covering all possible cases. Others encompass a small set of basic rules that address all or at least the most important moral considerations. One difficulty for systems with several basic principles is that these principles may conflict with each other in some cases and lead to ethical dilemmas . Distinct theories in normative ethics suggest different principles as the foundation of morality. The three most influential schools of thought are consequentialism , deontology , and virtue ethics . These schools are usually presented as exclusive alternatives, but depending on how they are defined, they can overlap and do not necessarily exclude one another. In some cases, they differ in which acts they see as right or wrong. In other cases, they recommend
6264-464: A situation, regardless of their specific role or position. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is one of the most well-known deontologists. He states that reaching outcomes that people desire, such as being happy, is not the main purpose of moral actions. Instead, he argues that there are universal principles that apply to everyone independent of their desires. He uses the term categorical imperative for these principles, saying that they have their source in
6438-425: A society construct different moral systems based on their diverging purposes. Emotivism provides a different explanation, stating that morality arises from moral emotions, which are not the same for everyone. Moral nihilists deny the existence of moral facts. They reject the existence of both objective moral facts defended by moral realism and subjective moral facts defended by moral relativism. They believe that
6612-593: A society in which the most fortunate help the least fortunate is not only a moral society but a logical one". Among contemporary political philosophers, Rawls is frequently cited by the courts of law in the United States and Canada and referred to by practicing politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom. In a 2008 national survey of political theorists, based on 1,086 responses from professors at accredited, four-year colleges and universities in
6786-492: A thought experiment he called the " original position ." The intuition motivating its employment is this: the enterprise of political philosophy will be greatly benefited by a specification of the correct standpoint a person should take in their thinking about justice. When we think about what it would mean for a just state of affairs to obtain between persons, we eliminate certain features (such as hair or eye color, height, race, etc.) and fixate upon others. Rawls's original position
6960-527: A total of 2,500 doctoral graduates per year (i.e. 0.8%) achieve a sub auspiciis degree. In Belgium , the university degree awarded is limited to: In Brazil , most universities do not provide honors to their students. Among the few universities that do so, the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA—Technological Institute of Aeronautics) awards the cum laude honor for graduates with every individual grade above 8.5 (out of 10.0),
7134-439: A two-part second principle comprising Fair Equality of Opportunity and the famous (and controversial) difference principle . This second principle ensures that those with comparable talents and motivation face roughly similar life chances and that inequalities in society work to the benefit of the least advantaged. Rawls held that these principles of justice apply to the "basic structure" of fundamental social institutions (such as
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7308-557: A virtuous life. Eudaimonist theories often hold that virtues are positive potentials residing in human nature and that actualizing these potentials results in leading a good and happy life. Agent-based theories, by contrast, see happiness only as a side effect and focus instead on the admirable traits and motivational characteristics expressed while acting. This is often combined with the idea that one can learn from exceptional individuals what those characteristics are. Feminist ethics of care are another form of virtue ethics. They emphasize
7482-487: Is a moral obligation to refrain from lying. Because it relies on consent, contractualism is often understood as a patient-centered form of deontology. Famous social contract theorists include Thomas Hobbes , John Locke , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and John Rawls . Discourse ethics also focuses on social agreement on moral norms but says that this agreement is based on communicative rationality . It aims to arrive at moral norms for pluralistic modern societies that encompass
7656-562: Is achieved by mutually adjusting one's general principles and one's considered judgements on particular cases, to bring the two into line with one another. Rawls derives two principles of justice from the original position. The first of these is the Liberty Principle, which establishes equal basic liberties for all citizens. 'Basic' liberty entails the (familiar in the liberal tradition) freedoms of conscience, association and expression as well as democratic rights; Rawls also includes
7830-543: Is awarded after a secret vote of the jury members, using envelopes that must be opened in a session separate from the defense session. Obtaining the qualification of doctorate cum laude requires the unanimity of the members of the examining board (between 3 and 5 experts, depending on the university). In Spain, the cum laude mention is regulated by RD 534/2013. In Switzerland , the degrees rite , cum laude , magna cum laude , insigni cum laude ("distinguished with praise"), and summa cum laude are used, but
8004-651: Is awarded to students who have achieved an average grade of 75% or higher throughout the degree. Cum laude in South Africa can be considered broadly equivalent to a first class degree in the United Kingdom or a GPA of 3.7–4.0 in the United States . In Spain , the Latin honors cum laude is used for PhD degrees only and is the highest possible qualification. It is only applicable to doctoral degrees that achieve an outstanding mark (10/10) and it
8178-476: Is better than an unequal distribution even if the aggregate good is the same. There are disagreements about which consequences should be assessed. An important distinction is between act consequentialism and rule consequentialism. According to act consequentialism, the consequences of an act determine its moral value. This means that there is a direct relation between the consequences of an act and its moral value. Rule consequentialism, by contrast, holds that an act
8352-410: Is between naturalism and non-naturalism. Naturalism states that moral properties are natural properties accessible to empirical observation . They are similar to the natural properties investigated by the natural sciences , like color and shape. Some moral naturalists hold that moral properties are a unique and basic type of natural property. Another view states that moral properties are real but not
8526-456: Is embedded in and relative to social and cultural contexts. Pragmatists tend to give more importance to habits than to conscious deliberation and understand morality as a habit that should be shaped in the right way. Postmodern ethics agrees with pragmatist ethics about the cultural relativity of morality. It rejects the idea that there are objective moral principles that apply universally to all cultures and traditions. It asserts that there
8700-530: Is even rarer than for master's graduates. In view of the difficulty and subjectivity of determining this, some universities and fields of study very seldom award doctorates cum laude . At Dutch university colleges cum laude , magna cum laude and, exceptionally, summa cum laude may be awarded. In the Philippines , junior high school and senior high school students under the new K–12 curriculum use an honor system using Filipino translations of
8874-537: Is found in Jainism , which has non-violence as its principal virtue. Duty is a central aspect of Hindu ethics and is about fulfilling social obligations, which may vary depending on a person's social class and stage of life . Confucianism places great emphasis on harmony in society and sees benevolence as a key virtue. Taoism extends the importance of living in harmony to the whole world and teaches that people should practice effortless action by following
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#17327719591619048-428: Is meant to encode all of our intuitions about which features are relevant, and which irrelevant, for the purposes of deliberating well about justice. The original position is Rawls's hypothetical scenario in which a group of persons is set the task of reaching an agreement about the kind of political and economic structure they want for a society, which they will then occupy. Each individual, however, deliberates behind
9222-736: Is no one coherent ethical code since morality itself is irrational and humans are morally ambivalent beings. Postmodern ethics instead focuses on how moral demands arise in specific situations as one encounters other people. Ethical egoism is the view that people should act in their self-interest or that an action is morally right if the person acts for their own benefit. It differs from psychological egoism , which states that people actually follow their self-interest without claiming that they should do so. Ethical egoists may act in agreement with commonly accepted moral expectations and benefit other people, for example, by keeping promises, helping friends, and cooperating with others. However, they do so only as
9396-651: Is not interested in which actions are right but in what it means for an action to be right and whether moral judgments are objective and can be true at all. It further examines the meaning of morality and other moral terms. Metaethics is a metatheory that operates on a higher level of abstraction than normative ethics by investigating its underlying assumptions. Metaethical theories typically do not directly judge which normative ethical theories are correct. However, metaethical theories can still influence normative theories by examining their foundational principles. Metaethics overlaps with various branches of philosophy. On
9570-446: Is one of the earliest forms of consequentialism. It arose in the 5th century BCE and argued that political action should promote justice as a means to increase the welfare of the people. The most well-known form of consequentialism is utilitarianism. In its classical form, it is an act consequentialism that sees happiness as the only source of intrinsic value. This means that an act is morally right if it produces "the greatest good for
9744-428: Is one of the main branches of philosophy and investigates the nature of morality and the principles that govern the moral evaluation of conduct , character traits , and institutions . It examines what obligations people have, what behavior is right and wrong, and how to lead a good life. Some of its key questions are "How should one live?" and "What gives meaning to life ?". In contemporary philosophy, ethics
9918-422: Is primarily concerned with normative statements about what ought to be the case, in contrast to descriptive statements , which are about what is the case. Duties and obligations express requirements of what people ought to do. Duties are sometimes defined as counterparts of the rights that always accompany them. According to this view, someone has a duty to benefit another person if this other person has
10092-438: Is right if it follows a certain set of rules. Rule consequentialism determines the best rules by considering their outcomes at a community level. People should follow the rules that lead to the best consequences when everyone in the community follows them. This implies that the relation between an act and its consequences is indirect. For example, if telling the truth is one of the best rules, then according to rule consequentialism,
10266-454: Is shared between them. Political reasoning, then, is to proceed purely in terms of "public reasons." For example: a Supreme Court justice deliberating on whether or not the denial to homosexuals of the ability to marry constitutes a violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause may not advert to his religious convictions on the matter, but he may take into account the argument that a same-sex household provides sub-optimal conditions for
10440-404: Is simple: one does not know whether he himself would be a woman or a black person. This position is expressed in the difference principle , according to which, in a system of ignorance about one's status, one would strive to improve the position of the worst off, because he might find himself in that position. Rawls develops his original position by modeling it, in certain respects at least, after
10614-434: Is that codes of conduct in specific areas, such as business and environment, are usually termed ethics rather than morality, as in business ethics and environmental ethics . Normative ethics is the philosophical study of ethical conduct and investigates the fundamental principles of morality . It aims to discover and justify general answers to questions like "How should one live?" and "How should people act?", usually in
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#173277195916110788-439: Is that his preferred emphasis on a society of peoples is separate from the more conventional and historical discussion of international politics as based on relationships between states. Rawls argued that the legitimacy of a liberal international order is contingent on tolerating decent peoples , which differ from liberal peoples , among other ways, in that they might have state religions and deny adherents of minority faiths
10962-407: Is that similar accounts may be presented for many other comprehensive doctrines. This is Rawls's famous notion of an " overlapping consensus ." Such a consensus would necessarily exclude some doctrines, namely, those that are "unreasonable", and so one may wonder what Rawls has to say about such doctrines. An unreasonable comprehensive doctrine is unreasonable in the sense that it is incompatible with
11136-519: Is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy , it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics , applied ethics , and metaethics . Normative ethics aims to find general principles that govern how people should act. Applied ethics examines concrete ethical problems in real-life situations, such as abortion , treatment of animals , and business practices . Metaethics explores
11310-422: Is the only thing with intrinsic value is called ethical or evaluative hedonism . Classical utilitarianism was initially formulated by Jeremy Bentham at the end of the 18th century and further developed by John Stuart Mill . Bentham introduced the hedonic calculus to assess the value of consequences. Two key aspects of the hedonic calculus are the intensity and the duration of pleasure. According to this view,
11484-437: Is to have a good will. A person has a good will if they respect the moral law and form their intentions and motives in agreement with it. Kant states that actions motivated in such a way are unconditionally good, meaning that they are good even in cases where they result in undesirable consequences. Divine command theory says that God is the source of morality. It states that moral laws are divine commands and that to act morally
11658-489: Is to obey and follow God's will . While all divine command theorists agree that morality depends on God, there are disagreements about the precise content of the divine commands, and theorists belonging to different religions tend to propose different moral laws. For example, Christian and Jewish divine command theorists may argue that the Ten Commandments express God's will while Muslims may reserve this role for
11832-460: Is typically indicated on the diploma . Latin honors are often conferred upon law school students graduating as a Juris Doctor or J.D., in which case they are generally based upon class rank or grade point average . Most American colleges and universities use Latin honors for bachelor's degrees and for the Juris Doctor law degree, but not for other degrees such as master's degrees or
12006-694: Is used, by the major universities, to recognize an outstanding dissertation for bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees. Also different awards on public and private universities are given to the student with the highest final grade average (i.e. Presea Lázaro Cárdenas [ es ] or Gabino Barreda Medal) and a diploma is given as a form of cum laude . In the Netherlands , two classes of honors may be used for bachelor's, master's and PhD degree programs: cum laude (with honor) and summa cum laude (with highest honor). Typically these distinctions are reserved to mark exceptional achievement above
12180-411: Is usually divided into normative ethics , applied ethics , and metaethics . Morality is about what people ought to do rather than what they actually do, what they want to do, or what social conventions require. As a rational and systematic field of inquiry, ethics studies practical reasons why people should act one way rather than another. Most ethical theories seek universal principles that express
12354-421: Is wrong to break a promise even if no harm comes from it. Deontologists are interested in which actions are right and often allow that there is a gap between what is right and what is good. Many focus on prohibitions and describe which acts are forbidden under any circumstances. Agent-centered deontological theories focus on the person who acts and the duties they have. Agent-centered theories often focus on
12528-399: Is wrong. This observation is sometimes taken as an argument against moral realism since moral disagreement is widespread in most fields. Moral relativists reject the idea that morality is an objective feature of reality. They argue instead that moral principles are human inventions. This means that a behavior is not objectively right or wrong but only subjectively right or wrong relative to
12702-410: The magna cum laude honor for graduates with average grade above 8.5 and more than 50% of individual grades above 9.5, and the summa cum laude honor for graduates with average grade above 9.5. As of 2009, only 22 graduates have received the summa cum laude honor at ITA. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro awards the cum laude honor for graduates with average grade from 8.0 to 8.9,
12876-430: The magna cum laude honor for graduates with average grade from 9.0 to 9.4, and the summa cum laude honor for graduates with average grade from 9.5 to 10.0. The Federal University of Ceará awards the magna cum laude honor for undergraduates who have never failed a course, achieved an average grade from 8.5 (out of 10.0) and have received a fellowship of both Academic Extension and Teaching Initiation . In
13050-560: The Ancient Greek word êthos ( ἦθος ), meaning ' character ' and ' personal disposition ' . This word gave rise to the Ancient Greek word ēthikós ( ἠθικός ), which was translated into Latin as ethica and entered the English language in the 15th century through the Old French term éthique . The term morality originates in the Latin word moralis , meaning ' manners ' and ' character ' . It
13224-541: The British undergraduate degree classification (usually used in Commonwealth countries) which is more widely used with varying criteria and nomenclature depending on country, including Australia , Bangladesh , Barbados , Brazil , Colombia , Georgia , Hong Kong , India , Ireland , Jamaica , Kenya , New Zealand , Nigeria , Pakistan , Singapore , Sri Lanka , South Africa , Trinidad and Tobago , Uganda ,
13398-547: The Czech Republic , universities usually award the summa cum laude distinction to its best graduates in bachelors and masters study programmes. The criteria required by Czech universities are usually the following: a) an overall study results average up to 1.5 out of 4.0 (while "1" is the best, "excellent" grade and "4" is the failing grade), b) completion of the final state exam with the overall classification of 1 ("excellent") and also c) proper completion of studies in
13572-513: The Frankfurt School of critical theory , and many of Habermas's own students and associates were expected to be familiar with Rawls by the late 1980s. The Leibniz Prize -winning political philosopher Rainer Forst was advised by both by Rawls and Habermas in completing his PhD. Axel Honneth , Fabian Freyenhagen , and James Gordon Finlayson have also drawn on Rawls's work in comparison to Habermas. Moral philosophy Ethics
13746-657: The Institut d'études politiques de Paris , HEC Paris , use the Latin and English titles "summa cum laude" / "graduated with highest honors" for the top 2% and "cum laude" / "graduated with honors" for the next 5% of a year. From 2016, honorifics ceased to be used for the completion of a PhD . Before this date, the French PhD diploma could be awarded with increasing honors: mention bien , mention très honorable , mention très honorable avec félicitations du jury . While these honors grades have been revoked for
13920-640: The James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard. Rawls was, for a time, a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society . He was put forward for membership by Milton Friedman in 1968, and withdrew from the society three years later, just before his A Theory of Justice was published. Rawls rarely gave interviews and, having both a stutter (partially caused by the deaths of two of his brothers, who died through infections contracted from Rawls) and
14094-645: The Kent School , an Episcopalian preparatory school in Connecticut . Upon graduation in 1939, Rawls attended Princeton University , where he was accepted into The Ivy Club and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society . At Princeton, Rawls was influenced by Norman Malcolm , Ludwig Wittgenstein 's student. During his last two years at Princeton, he "became deeply concerned with theology and its doctrines." He considered attending
14268-633: The Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. There are three standard levels of Latin honors: In 1869, Harvard College became the first college in the United States to award final honors to its graduates. From 1872 to 1879, cum laude and summa cum laude were the two Latin honors awarded to graduates. Beginning in 1880, magna cum laude was also awarded. In his 1895 history of Amherst College , college historian William Seymour Tyler traced Amherst's system of Latin honors to 1881, and attributed it to Amherst College president Julius Hawley Seelye : Instead of attempting to fix
14442-529: The United Kingdom , Zimbabwe and many other countries. Malta shows the Latin honors on the degree certificates, but the UK model is shown on the transcript. In Austria , the only Latin honor in use is sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publicae ("under the auspices of the president of the republic") for doctoral degrees. Candidates must have consistently excellent grades throughout high school and university, making it very difficult to attain: only about 20 out of
14616-402: The medieval period , ethical thought was strongly influenced by religious teachings. In the modern period , this focus shifted to a more secular approach concerned with moral experience, reasons for acting , and the consequences of actions. An influential development in the 20th century was the emergence of metaethics. Ethics, also called moral philosophy, is the study of moral phenomena. It
14790-554: The type of equality that fair societies ought to embody. In a 2008 national survey of political theorists, based on 1,086 responses from professors at accredited, four-year colleges and universities in the United States, Rawls was voted first on the list of "Scholars Who Have Had the Greatest Impact on Political Theory in the Past 20 Years". Charles Taylor , Alasdair Macintyre , Michael Sandel , and Michael Walzer produced
14964-477: The "initial situations" of various social contract thinkers who came before him, including Thomas Hobbes , John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau . Each social contractarian constructs their initial situation somewhat differently, having in mind a unique political morality they intend the thought experiment to generate. Iain King has suggested the original position draws on Rawls's experiences in post-war Japan, where
15138-532: The 20th century, virtue ethics experienced a resurgence thanks to philosophers such as Elizabeth Anscombe , Philippa Foot , Alasdair MacIntyre , and Martha Nussbaum . There are many other schools of normative ethics in addition to the three main traditions. Pragmatist ethics focuses on the role of practice and holds that one of the key tasks of ethics is to solve practical problems in concrete situations. It has certain similarities to utilitarianism and its focus on consequences but concentrates more on how morality
15312-404: The 20th century, when the term was coined by G. E. M. Anscombe . Consequentialists usually understand the consequences of an action in a very wide sense that includes the totality of its effects. This is based on the idea that actions make a difference in the world by bringing about a causal chain of events that would not have existed otherwise. A core intuition behind consequentialism is that
15486-411: The Latin honors. It is also used by Yale-NUS College, with the top 5% of a graduating class receiving summa cum laude , the next 10% magna cum laude , and the next 20% cum laude . There are no credit (CAP) requirements to achieve the Latin honors at Yale-NUS College. In South Africa , the Latin honors cum laude is used for bachelor's degrees, honour's degrees and master's degrees, and
15660-457: The Latin original. Students who achieve a final grade average of 90-94 are awarded the title May Karangalan ( with honors ) and will receive a bronze medal with the DepEd seal. Those who have a final grade average of 95–97 receive the title of May Mataas na Karangalan ( with high honors ) and a silver medal with the same seal. Students with a final grade average of 98-100 shall be awarded
15834-616: The Pacific, where he served a tour of duty in New Guinea and was awarded a Bronze Star ; and the Philippines , where he endured intensive trench warfare and witnessed traumatizing scenes of violence and bloodshed. It was there that he lost his Christian faith and became an atheist. Following the surrender of Japan, Rawls became part of General MacArthur 's occupying army and was promoted to sergeant. But he became disillusioned with
16008-558: The PhD diploma, they are still in use for doctors of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dental Medicine. In Germany , the range of degrees is: These degrees are mostly used when a doctorate is conferred, not for diplomas, bachelor's or master's degrees, for which numerical grades between 1.0 ("very good") and 4.0 ("pass"), and 5.0 ("fail"), are given. In Hungary , the range of degrees—similar to the German system—is: rite ("duly" conferred, that is,
16182-468: The US Army was challenged with designing new social and political authorities for the country, while "imagining away all that had gone before." In social justice processes, each person early on makes decisions about which features of persons to consider and which to ignore. Rawls's aspiration is to have created a thought experiment whereby a version of that process is carried to its completion, illuminating
16356-526: The United States, Rawls was voted first on the list of "Scholars Who Have Had the Greatest Impact on Political Theory in the Past 20 Years". Rawls was born on February 21, 1921, in Baltimore , Maryland . He was the second of five sons born to William Lee Rawls, a prominent Baltimore attorney, and Anna Abell Stump Rawls. Tragedy struck Rawls at a young age: Two of his brothers died in childhood because they had contracted fatal illnesses from him. ... In 1928,
16530-430: The actual consequences but the expected consequences. This view takes into account that when deciding what to do, people have to rely on their limited knowledge of the total consequences of their actions. According to this view, a course of action has positive moral value despite leading to an overall negative outcome if it had the highest expected value , for example, because the negative outcome could not be anticipated or
16704-529: The agent. It is controversial whether agent-relative moral theories, like ethical egoism , should be considered as types of consequentialism. There are many different types of consequentialism. They differ based on what type of entity they evaluate, what consequences they take into consideration, and how they determine the value of consequences. Most theories assess the moral value of acts. However, consequentialism can also be used to evaluate motives , character traits , rules, and policies . Many types assess
16878-433: The application of The Law of Peoples, as it would be more legitimate towards all persons over whom political coercive power is exercised. According to Rawls however, nation states, unlike citizens, were self-sufficient in the cooperative enterprises that constitute domestic societies. Although Rawls recognized that aid should be given to governments which are unable to protect human rights for economic reasons, he claimed that
17052-570: The basic assumptions underlying moral claims are misguided. Some moral nihilists conclude from this that anything is allowed. A slightly different view emphasizes that moral nihilism is not itself a moral position about what is allowed and prohibited but the rejection of any moral position. Moral nihilism, like moral relativism, recognizes that people judge actions as right or wrong from different perspectives. However, it disagrees that this practice involves morality and sees it as just one type of human behavior. A central disagreement among moral realists
17226-417: The best action for someone with a good salary would be to donate 70% of their income to charity, it would be morally wrong for them to only donate 65%. Satisficing consequentialism, by contrast, only requires that an act is "good enough" even if it is not the best possible alternative. According to this view, it is possible to do more than one is morally required to do. Mohism in ancient Chinese philosophy
17400-532: The capacity to develop a sense of justice and a generally effective desire to abide by it. Knowing only these two features of themselves, the group will deliberate in order to design a social structure, during which each person will seek their maximal advantage. The idea is that proposals that we would ordinarily think of as unjust—such as that black people or women should not be allowed to hold public office—will not be proposed, in this, Rawls's original position, because it would be irrational to propose them. The reason
17574-402: The citizens whose lives will be limited by its social, legal, and political circumscriptions. In other words, the legitimacy of a law is contingent upon its justification being impossible to reasonably reject. This old insight took on a new shape, however, when Rawls realized that its application must extend to the deep justification of Justice as Fairness itself, which he had presented in terms of
17748-491: The competing claims of the values of freedom and equality. The second, Political Liberalism , addressed the question of how citizens divided by intractable religious and philosophical disagreements could come to endorse a constitutional democratic regime. The third, The Law of Peoples , focused on the issue of global justice. A Theory of Justice , published in 1971, aimed to resolve the seemingly competing claims of freedom and equality. The shape Rawls's resolution took, however,
17922-421: The consequences. A related approach is to characterize consequentialism not in terms of consequences but in terms of outcome, with the outcome being defined as the act together with its consequences. Most forms of consequentialism are agent-neutral. This means that the value of consequences is assessed from a neutral perspective, that is, acts should have consequences that are good in general and not just good for
18096-456: The correct standpoint a person should take in their thinking about justice. If he has succeeded, then the original position thought experiment may function as a full specification of the moral standpoint we should attempt to achieve when deliberating about social justice. In setting out his theory, Rawls described his method as one of " reflective equilibrium ," a concept which has since been used in other areas of philosophy. Reflective equilibrium
18270-423: The deficient state of cowardice and the excessive state of recklessness . Aristotle held that virtuous action leads to happiness and makes people flourish in life. Stoicism emerged about 300 BCE and taught that, through virtue alone, people can achieve happiness characterized by a peaceful state of mind free from emotional disturbances. The Stoics advocated rationality and self-mastery to achieve this state. In
18444-462: The desperately poor and marginalized in society. Demanding that everyone have exactly the same effective opportunities in life would almost certainly offend the very liberties that are supposedly being equalized. Nonetheless, we would want to ensure at least the "fair worth" of our liberties: wherever one ends up in society, one wants life to be worth living, with enough effective freedom to pursue personal goals. Thus, participants would be moved to affirm
18618-592: The duty of civility. This is simply another way of saying that an unreasonable doctrine is incompatible with the fundamental political values a liberal theory of justice is designed to safeguard—freedom, equality and fairness. So one answer to the question of what Rawls has to say about such doctrines is—nothing. For one thing, the liberal state cannot justify itself to individuals (such as religious fundamentalists) who hold to such doctrines, because any such justification would—as has been noted—proceed in terms of controversial moral or religious commitments that are excluded from
18792-510: The duty of civility—the duty of citizens to offer one another reasons that are mutually understood as reasons—applies within what he called the "public political forum." This forum extends from the upper reaches of government—for example the supreme legislative and judicial bodies of the society—all the way down to the deliberations of a citizen deciding for whom to vote in state legislatures or how to vote in public referendums. Campaigning politicians should also, he believed, refrain from pandering to
18966-466: The equivalent in Italian ) is used as an increasing level of the highest grade for both exams (30/30) and degrees (110/110), in all its levels; Passing an exam cum laude ( 30 e lode ) has usually only an honorific meaning, but sometimes it influences the average grade and can be useful to the student so honored (usually weighting 31/30). "30 e lode" is usually awarded after answering correctly
19140-474: The exact GPA corresponding to each varies by institution. In Ukraine , the university education honor system is based on by-law # 161 (2 June 1993) of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine (3.12.3.5). For a student to graduate from a university with a diploma with honors ( cum laude ), students have to receive mark 5 (excellent) at least on 75% of courses, receive mark 4 (good) at max 25% of courses, and pass
19314-646: The exacting, academic tone of Rawls's writing and his reclusive personality, his philosophical work has exerted an enormous impact on not only contemporary moral and political philosophy but also public political discourse. During the student protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989 , copies of "A Theory of Justice" were brandished by protesters in the face of government officials. Despite being approximately 600 pages long, over 300,000 copies of that book have been sold, stimulating critical responses from utilitarian , feminist , conservative, libertarian , Catholic , communitarian , Marxist and Green scholars. Although having
19488-443: The exclusion of concern with justifying liberal values to those not already committed—or at least open—to them. Rawls's concern is with whether or not the idea of political legitimacy fleshed out in terms of the duty of civility and mutual justification can serve as a viable form of public discourse in the face of the religious and moral pluralism of modern democratic society, not with justifying this conception of political legitimacy in
19662-645: The final examination. The Finnish Matriculation Examinations at the end of lukio / gymnasium uses the grades of: improbatur (I, failing; "not accepted"), approbatur (A; "accepted"), lubenter approbatur (B; "willingly accepted"), cum laude approbatur (C; "accepted with praise"), magna cum laude approbatur (M; "accepted with great praise"), eximia cum laude approbatur (E; "accepted with excellent praise") and laudatur (L; "praised"). They are roughly equivalent to Finnish school grades ranging from 4 to 10. Some Finnish universities, when grading master's theses and doctoral dissertations, use
19836-545: The first place. Rawls also modified the principles of justice as follows (with the first principle having priority over the second, and the first half of the second having priority over the latter half): These principles are subtly modified from the principles in Theory . The first principle now reads "equal claim" instead of "equal right", and he also replaces the phrase "system of basic liberties" with "a fully adequate scheme of equal basic rights and liberties". The two parts of
20010-413: The form of universal or domain-independent principles that determine whether an act is right or wrong. For example, given the particular impression that it is wrong to set a child on fire for fun, normative ethics aims to find more general principles that explain why this is the case, like the principle that one should not cause extreme suffering to the innocent , which may itself be explained in terms of
20184-519: The formation of character . Descriptive ethics describes the dominant moral codes and beliefs in different societies and considers their historical dimension. The history of ethics started in the ancient period with the development of ethical principles and theories in ancient Egypt , India , China , and Greece . This period saw the emergence of ethical teachings associated with Hinduism , Buddhism , Confucianism , Daoism , and contributions of philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle . During
20358-472: The free exercise of human rationality under the conditions of open enquiry and free conscience that the liberal state is designed to safeguard. The question of legitimacy in the face of reasonable disagreement was urgent for Rawls because his own justification of Justice as Fairness relied upon a Kantian conception of the human good that can be reasonably rejected. If the political conception offered in A Theory of Justice can only be shown to be good by invoking
20532-405: The future should be shaped to achieve the best possible outcome. The act itself is usually not seen as part of the consequences. This means that if an act has intrinsic value or disvalue, it is not included as a factor. Some consequentialists see this as a flaw, saying that all value-relevant factors need to be considered. They try to avoid this complication by including the act itself as part of
20706-429: The greatest number" by increasing happiness and reducing suffering. Utilitarians do not deny that other things also have value, like health, friendship, and knowledge. However, they deny that these things have intrinsic value. Instead, they say that they have extrinsic value because they affect happiness and suffering. In this regard, they are desirable as a means but, unlike happiness, not as an end. The view that pleasure
20880-482: The grounds that a world state does not exist and would not be stable. This notion has been challenged, as a comprehensive system of global governance has arisen, amongst others in the form of the Bretton Woods system , that serves to distribute primary social goods between human beings. It has thus been argued that a cosmopolitan application of the theory of justice as fairness is the more reasonable alternative to
21054-534: The honours classification is stated as in English, e.g. primi ordinis for first class rather than summa cum laude , etc. Official degree certificates use English. For undergraduate degrees, Latin honors are used in only a few countries such as Israel , Indonesia , the Dominican Republic , the Philippines , one university in Singapore and Canada . Most countries use a different scheme, such as
21228-421: The human mind and culture rather than as subjective constructs or expressions of personal preferences and cultural norms . Moral realists accept the claim that there are objective moral facts. This view implies that moral values are mind-independent aspects of reality and that there is an absolute fact about whether a given action is right or wrong. A consequence of this view is that moral requirements have
21402-415: The importance of interpersonal relationships and say that benevolence by caring for the well-being of others is one of the key virtues. Influential schools of virtue ethics in ancient philosophy were Aristotelianism and Stoicism . According to Aristotle (384–322 BCE), each virtue is a golden mean between two types of vices: excess and deficiency. For example, courage is a virtue that lies between
21576-444: The individuals would know themselves to possess. First, individuals know that they have the capacity to form, pursue and revise a conception of the good, or life plan. Exactly what sort of conception of the good this is, however, the individual does not yet know. It may be, for example, religious or secular, but at the start, the individual in the original position does not know which. Second, each individual understands themselves to have
21750-411: The intellectual satisfaction of reading a book, are more valuable than lower pleasures, like the sensory enjoyment of food and drink, even if their intensity and duration are the same. Since its original formulation, many variations of utilitarianism have developed, including the difference between act and rule utilitarianism and between maximizing and satisficing utilitarianism. Deontology assesses
21924-455: The judiciary, the economic structure and the political constitution), a qualification that has been the source of some controversy and constructive debate (see the work of Gerald Cohen ). Rawls's theory of justice stakes out the task of equalizing the distribution of primary social goods to those least advantaged in society and thus may be seen as a largely political answer to the question of justice, with matters of morality somewhat conflated into
22098-534: The knowledge that they will be bailed out by those nations who had spent responsibly. Rawls's discussion of "non-ideal" theory, on the other hand, included a condemnation of bombing civilians and of the American bombing of German and Japanese cities in World War II , as well as discussions of immigration and nuclear proliferation. He also detailed here the ideal of the statesman, a political leader who looks to
22272-494: The leading contemporary figures in moral and political philosophy, including Sibyl A. Schwarzenbach , Thomas Nagel , Allan Gibbard , Onora O'Neill , Adrian Piper , Arnold Davidson , Elizabeth S. Anderson , Christine Korsgaard , Susan Neiman , Claudia Card , Rainer Forst , Thomas Pogge , T. M. Scanlon , Barbara Herman , Joshua Cohen , Thomas E. Hill Jr. , Gurcharan Das , Andreas Teuber , Henry S. Richardson , Nancy Sherman , Samuel Freeman and Paul Weithman . He held
22446-475: The legal theorist H. L. A. Hart . After returning to the United States, he served first as an assistant and then associate professor at Cornell University . In the fall of 1953 Rawls became an assistant professor at Cornell University , joining his mentor Norman Malcolm in the Philosophy Department. Three years later Rawls received tenure at Cornell . During the 1959–60 academic year, Rawls
22620-609: The level of ontology , it examines whether there are objective moral facts. Concerning semantics , it asks what the meaning of moral terms are and whether moral statements have a truth value . The epistemological side of metaethics discusses whether and how people can acquire moral knowledge. Metaethics overlaps with psychology because of its interest in how moral judgments motivate people to act. It also overlaps with anthropology since it aims to explain how cross-cultural differences affect moral assessments. Metaethics examines basic ethical concepts and their relations. Ethics
22794-458: The liberal values one way, a reasonable Muslim another, and a reasonable secular citizen yet another way. One may illustrate Rawls's idea using a Venn diagram: the public political values will be the shared space upon which overlap numerous reasonable comprehensive doctrines. Rawls's account of stability presented in A Theory of Justice is a detailed portrait of the compatibility of one—Kantian—comprehensive doctrine with justice as fairness. His hope
22968-695: The military when he saw the aftermath of the atomic blast in Hiroshima . Rawls then disobeyed an order to discipline a fellow soldier, "believing no punishment was justified," and was "demoted back to a private ." Disenchanted, he left the military in January 1946. In early 1946, Rawls returned to Princeton to pursue a doctorate in moral philosophy. He married Margaret Warfield Fox, a Brown University graduate, in 1949. They had four children: Anne Warfield , Robert Lee, Alexander Emory, and Elizabeth Fox. Rawls received his PhD from Princeton in 1950 after completing
23142-569: The moral rightness of actions based on a set of norms or principles. These norms describe the requirements that all actions need to follow. They may include principles like telling the truth, keeping promises , and not intentionally harming others. Unlike consequentialists, deontologists hold that the validity of general moral principles does not directly depend on their consequences. They state that these principles should be followed in every case since they express how actions are inherently right or wrong. According to moral philosopher David Ross , it
23316-477: The moral value of acts only depends on the pleasure and suffering they cause. An alternative approach says that there are many different sources of value, which all contribute to one overall value. Before the 20th century, consequentialists were only concerned with the total of value or the aggregate good. In the 20th century, alternative views were developed that additionally consider the distribution of value. One of them states that an equal distribution of goods
23490-416: The more equality-oriented demands of the second principle. This has also been a topic of much debate among moral and political philosophers. Finally, Rawls took his approach as applying in the first instance to what he called a "well-ordered society ... designed to advance the good of its members and effectively regulated by a public conception of justice." In this respect, he understood justice as fairness as
23664-431: The motives and intentions behind people's actions, highlighting the importance of acting for the right reasons. They tend to be agent-relative, meaning that the reasons for which people should act depend on personal circumstances. For example, a parent has a special obligation to their child, while a stranger does not have this kind of obligation toward a child they do not know. Patient-centered theories, by contrast, focus on
23838-476: The natural flow of the universe . Indigenous belief systems, like Native American philosophy and the African Ubuntu philosophy , often emphasize the interconnectedness of all living beings and the environment while stressing the importance of living in harmony with nature. Metaethics is the branch of ethics that examines the nature, foundations, and scope of moral judgments , concepts, and values. It
24012-405: The next generation and promotes international harmony, even in the face of significant domestic pressure to act otherwise. Rawls also controversially claimed that violations of human rights can legitimize military intervention in the violating states, though he also expressed the hope that such societies could be induced to reform peacefully by the good example of liberal and decent peoples. Despite
24186-447: The non-public religious or moral convictions of their constituencies. The ideal of public reason secures the dominance of the public political values—freedom, equality, and fairness—that serve as the foundation of the liberal state. But what about the justification of these values? Since any such justification would necessarily draw upon deep (religious or moral) metaphysical commitments which would be reasonably rejectable, Rawls held that
24360-430: The people affected by actions and the rights they have. An example is the requirement to treat other people as ends and not merely as a means to an end. This requirement can be used to argue, for example, that it is wrong to kill a person against their will even if this act would save the lives of several others. Patient-centered deontological theories are usually agent-neutral, meaning that they apply equally to everyone in
24534-440: The person possesses and exercises certain capacities or some form of control . If a person is morally responsible then it is appropriate to respond to them in certain ways, for example, by praising or blaming them. A major debate in metaethics is about the ontological status of morality, questioning whether ethical values and principles are real. It examines whether moral properties exist as objective features independent of
24708-411: The person would want everyone to follow the same maxim as a universal law applicable to everyone. Another formulation states that one should treat other people always as ends in themselves and never as mere means to an end. This formulation focuses on respecting and valuing other people for their own sake rather than using them in the pursuit of personal goals. In either case, Kant says that what matters
24882-579: The possibility that its normative foundations may not be universally applicable. The late philosopher G. A. Cohen , along with political scientist Jon Elster , and John Roemer , used Rawls's writings extensively to inaugurate the Analytical Marxism movement in the 1980s. In the later part of Rawls's career, he engaged with the scholarly work of Jürgen Habermas (see Habermas-Rawls debate ). Habermas's reading of Rawls led to an appreciation of Rawls's work and other analytical philosophers by
25056-479: The practice of selfless love , such as the Great Commandment to "Love your neighbor as yourself". The Five Pillars of Islam constitute a basic framework of Muslim ethics and focus on the practice of faith , prayer , charity , fasting during Ramadan , and pilgrimage to Mecca . Buddhists emphasize the importance of compassion and loving-kindness towards all sentient entities. A similar outlook
25230-513: The public political forum. But, more importantly, the goal of the Rawlsian project is primarily to determine whether or not the liberal conception of political legitimacy is internally coherent, and this project is carried out by the specification of what sorts of reasons persons committed to liberal values are permitted to use in their dialogue, deliberations and arguments with one another about political matters. The Rawlsian project has this goal to
25404-452: The public political values may only be justified privately by individual citizens. The public liberal political conception and its attendant values may and will be affirmed publicly (in judicial opinions and presidential addresses, for example) but its deep justifications will not. The task of justification falls to what Rawls called the "reasonable comprehensive doctrines" and the citizens who subscribe to them. A reasonable Catholic will justify
25578-636: The publication of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice in 1971". Rawls's theory of "justice as fairness" recommends equal basic liberties, equality of opportunity, and facilitating the maximum benefit to the least advantaged members of society in any case where inequalities may occur. Rawls's argument for these principles of social justice uses a thought experiment called the " original position ", in which people deliberately select what kind of society they would choose to live in if they did not know which social position they would personally occupy. In his later work Political Liberalism (1993), Rawls turned to
25752-430: The purpose for this aid is not to achieve an eventual state of global equality, but rather only to ensure that these societies could maintain liberal or decent political institutions. He argued, among other things, that continuing to give aid indefinitely would see nations with industrious populations subsidize those with idle populations and would create a moral hazard problem where governments could spend irresponsibly in
25926-543: The question of how political power could be made legitimate given reasonable disagreement about the nature of the good life. Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999. The latter was presented by President Bill Clinton in recognition of how his works "revived the disciplines of political and ethical philosophy with his argument that
26100-430: The rank of every individual student by minute divisions on a scale of a hundred as formerly, five grades of scholarship were established and degrees were conferred upon the graduating classes according to their grades. If a student was found to be in the first or lowest grade, he was not considered as a candidate for a degree, though he might receive a certificate stating the facts in regard to his standing; if he appeared in
26274-431: The requirements are fulfilled), cum laude (with honors), summa cum laude (with highest honors). These degrees are used in university diplomas and in certain fields of sciences (medical, legal and a very few others) only. The grades of degrees are dependent on the received average points from final exams and from average points from the university studies. In Italy , the cum laude notation ( con lode being
26448-501: The right to hold positions of power within the state and might organize political participation via consultation hierarchies rather than elections. However, no well-ordered peoples may violate human rights or behave in an externally aggressive manner. Peoples that fail to meet the criteria of "liberal" or "decent" peoples are referred to as 'outlaw states', 'societies burdened by unfavorable conditions' or 'benevolent absolutisms', depending on their particular failings. Such peoples do not have
26622-417: The right to mutual respect and toleration possessed by liberal and decent peoples. Rawls's views on global distributive justice as they were expressed in this work surprised many of his fellow egalitarian liberals. For example, Charles Beitz had previously written a study that argued for the application of Rawls's Difference Principles globally. Rawls denied that his principles should be so applied, partly on
26796-468: The right to receive that benefit. Obligation and permission are contrasting terms that can be defined through each other: to be obligated to do something means that one is not permitted not to do it and to be permitted to do something means that one is not obligated not to do it. Some theorists define obligations in terms of values or what is good . When used in a general sense, good contrasts with bad . When describing people and their intentions,
26970-417: The same course of action but provide different justifications for why it is right. Consequentialism, also called teleological ethics, says that morality depends on consequences. According to the most common view, an act is right if it brings the best future. This means that there is no alternative course of action that has better consequences. A key aspect of consequentialist theories is that they provide
27144-401: The same ontological status as non-moral facts: it is an objective fact whether there is an obligation to keep a promise just as it is an objective fact whether a thing is rectangular. Moral realism is often associated with the claim that there are universal ethical principles that apply equally to everyone. It implies that if two people disagree about a moral evaluation then at least one of them
27318-484: The same scale with the additional grade of non sine laude approbatur (N; "accepted not without praise") between lubenter and cum laude ; technical universities use a numerical scale (1–5) instead. In France , usually the French honors mention très bien ("very good mention"), mention bien ("good mention"), and mention assez bien ("quite good mention") are used. However some Grandes Écoles , like
27492-423: The same time required to justify them using rational argumentation. The main concern of virtue ethics is how virtues are expressed in actions. As such, it is neither directly interested in the consequences of actions nor in universal moral duties. Virtues are positive character traits like honesty , courage , kindness , and compassion . They are usually understood as dispositions to feel, decide, and act in
27666-473: The second grade the degree of A.B. was conferred upon him rite; if in the third, cum laude ; if in the fourth, magna cum laude ; while if he reached the fifth grade he received the degree summa cum laude . The advantages of this course, as stated to the trustees by the president, are that it properly discriminates between those who, though passing over the same course of study, have done it with great differences of merit and of scholarship, and that it furnishes
27840-484: The second principle are also switched, so that the difference principle becomes the latter of the three. Although there were passing comments on international affairs in A Theory of Justice , it was not until late in his career that Rawls formulated a comprehensive theory of international politics with the publication of The Law of Peoples . He claimed there that "well-ordered" peoples could be either "liberal" or "decent". Rawls's basic distinction in international politics
28014-476: The seven-year-old Rawls contracted diphtheria . His brother Bobby, younger by 20 months, visited him in his room and was fatally infected. The next winter, Rawls contracted pneumonia . Another younger brother, Tommy, caught the illness from him and died. Rawls's biographer Thomas Pogge calls the loss of the brothers the "most important events in John's childhood." Rawls graduated in Baltimore before enrolling in
28188-409: The structure of practical reason and are true for all rational agents. According to Kant, to act morally is to act in agreement with reason as expressed by these principles while violating them is both immoral and irrational. Kant provided several formulations of the categorical imperative. One formulation says that a person should only follow maxims that can be universalized . This means that
28362-595: The teachings of the Quran . Contractualists reject the reference to God as the source of morality and argue instead that morality is based on an explicit or implicit social contract between humans. They state that actual or hypothetical consent to this contract is the source of moral norms and duties. To determine which duties people have, contractualists often rely on a thought experiment about what rational people under ideal circumstances would agree on. For example, if they would agree that people should not lie then there
28536-455: The term evil rather than bad is often employed. Obligations are used to assess the moral status of actions, motives , and character traits . An action is morally right if it is in tune with a person's obligations and morally wrong if it violates them. Supererogation is a special moral status that applies to cases in which the agent does more than is morally required of them. To be morally responsible for an action usually means that
28710-541: The title of May Pinakamataas na Karangalan ( with highest honors ) and a gold medal with the same specification. In college, students are awarded the latin honors cum laude , magna cum laude and summa cum laude , respectively. In Russia , the honor system is based on the grade point average. At least 4.75 out of 5.0 points are required for the summa cum laude degree (in Russian, с отличием s otlichiem , "with excellence"). The graduate has to receive
28884-450: The truth and keeping promises. Virtue ethics sees the manifestation of virtues , like courage and compassion , as the fundamental principle of morality. Ethics is closely connected to value theory , which studies the nature and types of value , like the contrast between intrinsic and instrumental value . Moral psychology is a related empirical field and investigates psychological processes involved in morality, such as reasoning and
29058-444: The underlying assumptions and concepts of ethics. It asks whether there are objective moral facts, how moral knowledge is possible, and how moral judgments motivate people. Influential normative theories are consequentialism , deontology , and virtue ethics . According to consequentialists, an act is right if it leads to the best consequences. Deontologists focus on acts themselves, saying that they must adhere to duties , like telling
29232-399: The value of consequences based on whether they promote happiness or suffering. But there are also alternative evaluative principles, such as desire satisfaction, autonomy , freedom , knowledge , friendship , beauty , and self-perfection. Some forms of consequentialism hold that there is only a single source of value . The most prominent among them is utilitarianism , which states that
29406-436: The view that individuals could "legitimately expect" entitlements to the earning of income or development of abilities based on institutional arrangements. This aspect of Rawls's work has been instrumental in the development of such ideas as luck egalitarianism and unconditional basic income , which have themselves been criticized. The strictly egalitarian quality of Rawls's second principle of justice has called into question
29580-426: Was a visiting professor at Harvard, and he was appointed in 1960 as a professor in the humanities division at MIT. Two years later, he returned to Harvard as a professor of philosophy, and he remained there until reaching mandatory retirement age in 1991. In 1962, he achieved a tenured position at MIT . That same year, he moved to Harvard University , where he taught for almost forty years and where he trained some of
29754-400: Was awarded only for very exceptional work. Since 1 September 2010, only cum laude is used. It is awarded to bachelors, masters and integrated studies graduates. Occasionally the word kiitusega , which means "with praise", is substituted for the usual cum laude . To receive cum laude one must achieve a 4.60 GPA (out of 5) and receive the highest grade (A – 5.00) for the thesis or
29928-555: Was introduced into the English language during the Middle English period through the Old French term moralité . The terms ethics and morality are usually used interchangeably but some philosophers distinguish between the two. According to one view, morality focuses on what moral obligations people have while ethics is broader and includes ideas about what is good and how to lead a meaningful life. Another difference
30102-492: Was not that of a balancing act that compromised or weakened the moral claim of one value compared with the other. Rather, his intent was to show that notions of freedom and equality could be integrated into a seamless unity he called justice as fairness . By attempting to enhance the perspective which his readers should take when thinking about justice, Rawls hoped to show the supposed conflict between freedom and equality to be illusory. Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) includes
30276-475: Was unlikely. A further difference is between maximizing and satisficing consequentialism. According to maximizing consequentialism, only the best possible act is morally permitted. This means that acts with positive consequences are wrong if there are alternatives with even better consequences. One criticism of maximizing consequentialism is that it demands too much by requiring that people do significantly more than they are socially expected to. For example, if
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