362 GLOSSARYethical theory A full-dress ethical theory offers answers to the questions When is
moral reasoning appropriate (what makes an issue moral)?, What makes an
action right or wrong?, What makes a person good or evil?, Is act morality basic
to the morality of persons or is the morality of persons basic to act morality?,
What sort of life is worth living? in a way that is intended to be consistent,
coherent, and true.
ethics That part of philosophy concerned with the construction, assessment, and
application of ethical theories.
evil The knowing destruction or diminishing of natural or moral value without
sufficient moral justification.
faith The acceptance of religious doctrine and the endeavor to live in accord with
it; an essential element in faith is trust if the doctrine claims the existence of a
cosmic person.
foreknowledge God’s knowledge of truths about the future.
formal logical necessity A proposition is formally logically necessary if and only
if it has the form P and not-P or entails a proposition that has this form; Bill
Russell is not both six feet nine inches tall, and not six feet nine inches tall is
formally logically necessary.
God An omnipotent and omniscient being, Creator of the world and providential
in guiding the course of history, and a morally perfect agent.
idealism The view that everything that exists is a mental thing, a state of a mental
thing, a quality of a mental thing, or a relation between mental things.
informal logical necessity A proposition is informally logically necessary if it is
logically necessary (there are no possible conditions under which it would be
false) but not formally logically necessary (it is not of the form P and not-P
and it entails no proposition of this form); If William draws a rectangle then
William draws a figure is informally logically necessary.
interactionism The view that dualism is true, that material states cause mental
states, and mental states cause material states.
invalid argument An argument that is not valid.
Islam A religious tradition that is monotheistic, holding that God gave a
revelation to Mohammed in Arabic, the Koran, through which it interprets the
Christian and Jewish Bibles.
Jainism An Indian religious tradition, one of whose core doctrines is that persons
enjoy necessary existence and inherent knowledge.
Judaism A religious tradition that is monotheistic, holding that God gave the law
to Moses, called Abraham and made him the father of a chosen people; its
sacred scriptures, the Hebrew Bible, includes the books of the Christian Old
Testament.
karma The doctrine of karma claims that one receives good consequences for
good actions and bad consequences for bad actions, some of the consequences
typically coming in a different lifetime than the deed from which they arise.
libertarianism The view that we have freedom of choice, and compatibilism and
determinism are false.
logical necessity A property of propositions; a proposition has this property if
and only if there are no possible conditions under which it would be false; it is
identical to necessarily true.
logically contingent A proposition is logically contingent if and only if there are
conditions under which it would be true and conditions under which it would
be false.
logically impossible A proposition is logically impossible if and only if it is not
logically possible*; the denial of a logically impossible proposition is logically