Glossary of Ethics: Key Terms for UPSC GS IV

A large share of the difference between a mediocre and a strong GS IV answer is vocabulary. Students who use the precise term — deontology rather than "rule-based ethics", probity rather than "honesty", nishkam karma rather than "duty" — signal to the examiner that they understand the discipline. This glossary consolidates the most examinable terms from the Compass source into a structured reference you can revise on a single sitting.

Core Ethical Concepts

Ethics — the systematic study of human action from the point of view of its rightfulness or wrongfulness as a means to attain the highest good.

Morality — one's own (individual, family, organisational, societal) standard for judging things right or wrong. Thomas Hobbes described morality as the set of rules that make peaceful living possible.

Value — a standard of behaviour that may or may not be standard; values vary person to person.

Virtue — a positive or excellent character trait such as kindness, compassion, honesty, or generosity.

Virtue ethics — an approach that focuses on a person’s character rather than rules or consequences. It asks “What sort of person should I be?” rather than “What should I do?” It is person-centred, concerned with a life as a whole rather than individual episodes.

Moral relativism / ethical relativism — the claim that there are many truths and no common ground to judge rightness or wrongness.

Moral universalism — the claim that virtue or norm can be known to all, and a virtuous person is one who knows what virtue is.

Ancient and Classical Concepts

Socratic method / dialectical method / art of questioning — Socrates' approach of accepting an opinion only after thorough cross-examination and introspection. He taught people how to inquire, not what to conclude.

Happiness (Socrates) — depends on the education of desire. The soul learns to harmonise its desire, redirecting attention away from physical pleasure toward the love of knowledge and virtues, producing wisdom that is true happiness.

Hedonism — the view that happiness means minimising pain and maximising pleasure.

Moral intellectualism — the view that anyone who knows what virtue is will necessarily act virtuously, because nobody knowingly does what is bad.

Temperance — the strength that protects against excess; self-regulation and obedience to authority; harmony among conflicting elements.

Courage or fortitude — the bravery to do justice; removes obstacles in the path of justice.

Prudence or wisdom — right reason in action; guides and regulates all other virtues.

Justice — a human virtue that makes a person self-consistent and good. Socially, it is the consciousness that makes a society internally harmonious. Justice means giving people what they deserve.

Individual justice — the moral disposition that makes men act justly and wish for just outcomes.

Distributive justice — fair distribution of benefits and burdens across members of society.

Corrective justice — safeguarding the rights and liberties of citizens.

Doctrine of the mean — Aristotle's view that each moral virtue lies between two extremes. Courage, for example, is the mean between cowardice and reckless aggression.

Four cardinal virtues — prudence, justice, courage, and temperance (Plato, later affirmed by Aristotle).

Utilitarianism

Universal egoism — everyone should do what is in their own interest; this idea promoted liberty and freedom. Bentham: liberty is the absence of restraint.

Altruistic or universalistic hedonism — J.S. Mill's position that individual action should not harm society, because good for society is good for the individual.

Legal positivism — Bentham's view that natural laws are limitless, undefined, and ambiguous; rights of people should be defined and protected by sovereign power (government).

Rule utilitarianism — Mill's refinement: ordinary people cannot calculate pleasure and pain in every instance, so there should be basic rules that, on balance, maximise pleasure and minimise pain.

Social Contract Theory

State of nature — a hypothetical condition where individuals have no a priori moral law to constrain their behaviour.

Right of nature — in the state of nature, only the power of others limits what one can do; Hobbes called this the right of nature.

State of peace and laws of nature — Hobbes argued that rational beings will try to avoid war. His laws of nature amount to not treating others in ways we would not want to be treated.

Social contract — an agreement between individuals to establish laws and an agency to enforce them.

Leviathan state — Hobbes's strong state with absolute powers, where subjects cannot revolt and rights are conditional rather than absolute.

Veil of ignorance — Rawls's method: decision-makers should make choices assuming they know nothing about the talents, positions, or social class they will have in the resulting society. This forces morally impartial decisions.

Kantian Ethics

Deontology — from the Greek "deon", meaning duty. The moral worth of an action does not depend on its consequences. Moral agents must fulfil their duties and honour rights even at the cost of an optimal outcome.

Categorical imperative (Kant) — "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." What is right for one must be right for all; what is wrong for one is wrong for all.

Conflicts and Tensions

Ethical dilemma — a situation where two or more equally compelling values clash; both options are either positive or both are negative.

Conflict of interest — a particular value conflict where a set of circumstances creates a risk that professional judgment on a primary interest (public interest) is unduly influenced by a secondary interest (personal gain).

Beliefs, Norms, and Attitudes

Belief — an internal feeling that something is true, even if unproven or irrational; the simplest form of mental representation and the building block of thought.

Norms or social norms — social expectations that guide behaviour; socially acceptable ways of behaving.

Attitude — a learned tendency to act, think, and feel in particular ways toward a class of people, objects, places, or events. Attitude is the spectacles through which a person sees the world.

Discrimination — distinguishing in favour of or against a person on the basis of the group, class, or category to which they belong.

Social influence — the ways people influence the attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours of others.

Persuasion — a process aimed at changing a person's attitude or behaviour toward some idea, event, object, or person.

Conformity — following existing rules, order, or culture under real or imagined pressure.

Obedience — following orders under extreme external pressure.

Imitation — following someone without external pressure.

Nudging — altering the decision-making environment to steer people away from biases and irrational behaviour.

Aptitude and Ability

Aptitude — natural or inherent capacity to acquire a skill or ability in the future through appropriate training; innate special abilities.

Ability — something we have learnt in the present.

Skill — something learnt in the past and mastered.

Law and Religion

Law — an ordinance of reason drafted by a sovereign authority and binding about a particular territory.

Eternal law — not made but exists eternally; comprises scientific laws by which the universe is ordered.

Divine law — laws revealed to humans through sacred texts like the Bible, Quran, or Gita.

Natural law — eternal law perceived by reason — the need for food for living, dignity for all, and so on.

Human law — laws made by humans, such as NRC, CAA, or farm laws.

Religion — both a belief system (shaping what people think and how they see the world) and a social institution (a pattern of social action organised around beliefs and practices).

Conscience and Ethical Management

Conscience — the inner voice of a person. Decisions are often influenced by instincts, temptations, emotional bonds, and desires, but conscience stands over and above these. Listening to the conscience is generally considered ethical.

Ethical management — the recognition of values as an important dimension of administration; includes values as a core component of institutions like government, NGOs, and private firms. In practice, it means including ethics in every step of management (POSDCORB):

• Planning (value of inclusion, sustainability).
• Organising (impartial).
• Staffing (based on rational rules).
• Directing (democratic).
• Coordinating (sympathetic).
• Reporting (objectivity, truth).
• Budgeting (veil of ignorance).

Management of ethics — the process of creating and using tools and techniques that help integrate values into the conduct of administration, employees, and citizens.

Work commitment — visible in opposition to sitting on files and ill-treatment of the public in government offices and hospitals. Work is an opportunity to serve and contribute, not a burden.

Excellence — an excellent administrator ensures the highest standards of quality in administrative decisions and actions, not compromising for convenience.

Good governance — the World Bank defines it as how power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development.

Public service — the class and tasks of officials who act as delegates of elected officials. Elected representatives define the public interest; the public service ensures it is served and that public trust is maintained.

Probity and Allied Terms

Probity — from the Latin "probitas", meaning good. The quality of having strong moral principles and strictly following them. Includes honesty, integrity, uprightness, transparency, and incorruptibility. Probity is confirmed integrity.

Probity in governance — concerned with propriety and character of various organs of government, independent of the individuals staffing them. Involves an ethical and transparent approach that can withstand scrutiny.

Transparency — designing government processes so that actions and decisions are not hidden from public view.

Corruption — from the Latin "corruptus", meaning "to break or destroy".

Code of ethics — a broad framework of ethical principles and standards acceptable to society.

Code of conduct — a set of specific rules to regulate the behaviour of participants of a particular organisation.

Citizen Charter — a public document that sets out information on services provided, standards citizens can expect, and how to make complaints.

Work culture — the sum of an organisation’s values, beliefs, principles, ideologies, and practices.

Quality of service delivery — right services provided to the right people at the right time in the right manner.

Applied Ethics Branches

Environmental ethics — studies the moral relationship, value, and moral status of human beings to the environment and its non-human contents.

Media ethics — moral issues in journalism, news, film, television, and entertainment; how to apply honesty, accuracy, impartiality, fairness, harm avoidance, and privacy.

Medical ethics — moral principles that medical practitioners must follow.

Biotechnology ethics — the ethical concerns raised by biological knowledge outpacing wisdom.

Corporate ethics or governance — the mechanisms, processes, and relationships that govern corporations.

Military ethics — the paradox of establishing a relationship between morality and murder.

Objectivity and Emotion

Objectivity — looking at things as they are.

Subjectivity — looking at things as we are.

Apathy — the state of indifference; no emotion of concern, care, or motivation.

Sympathy — an instinctive reaction of kindness, momentary in nature; spontaneous but without deep understanding.

Empathy — putting oneself in another's place to understand their pain and sorrow. Has cognitive and emotional aspects. More sustainable than sympathy.

Compassion — understanding plus the desire to act to alleviate suffering.

Tolerance — a permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, or nationality differ from one's own.

Integrity — adopting similar principles in similar situations across time and parties; unity, coherence, and undividedness of values.

Dedication to public service — the highest form of commitment; commitment with passion, love, and perseverance.

Impartiality — unbiased behaviour; decisions based on objective criteria rather than prejudice.

Bias — the inclination of some at the cost of others.

Partiality — the behaviour resulting from bias.

Prejudice — being pre-judgemental.

Non-partisanship — not taking active part in the politics of the day while offering honest technical advice to political masters.

Civil service neutrality — political impartiality and non-partisanship throughout a career; a kind of political sterilisation.

Accountability and Responsibility

Accountability — making public officials answerable for their behaviour to the entity from which they derive authority. Holders of public office submit to scrutiny; accountability also requires measurable performance criteria and oversight.

Answerability — being legally bound to give answers about one's commissions and omissions.

Enforceability — liability to be punished according to law if found guilty of misconduct in official duty.

Grievance redressal — an institutional mechanism for the aggrieved to be heard and have concerns resolved.

Responsibility — accountability to oneself; a moral concept where a person feels answerable to herself, even where no law applies. More enduring than accountability.

Feelings and Emotions

Feeling — a partly mental, partly physical response marked by pleasure, pain, attraction, or repulsion; implies little about intensity or nature.

Mood — a temporary emotional state, sometimes without a clear cause.

Affection — feelings that are also inclinations or likings.

Sentiment — emotion inspired by an idea, such as feminist or conservative sentiments.

Passion — a very powerful or controlling emotion.

Intelligence — the capacity of an individual to think rationally, act purposefully, and deal effectively with the environment.

Emotional intelligence — the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions of oneself and others.

Perceived conflict of interest — when circumstances could reasonably create the appearance of conflict even if no actual conflict exists. Supreme Court Judge Kurian Joseph skipping a dinner in Italy during an Indian delegation visit, to avoid perceived conflict while adjudicating an India-Italy dispute, is a textbook example.

Case Study Prompt

A young IAS officer is offered a consulting role by her cousin's firm "after office hours". The work seems unrelated to her government duties. Walk through the glossary in order: conflict of interest (secondary gain influencing primary duty), perceived conflict of interest (external appearance matters even without actual wrongdoing), probity (incorruptibility does not permit such side arrangements), code of conduct (civil service rules forbid external employment), and integrity (unity of standards across public and private roles). Answer: decline, document, seek written guidance if pressure continues.

UPSC Relevance

This glossary maps to every major theme in GS IV. Use it as revision ballast in the final week before the Mains paper. A precise word in the right place is worth three vague ones.