- Agnostic(describes another type of person in the statement)
- A person who is unsure whether God exists and thinks it might be impossible to know for certain.
- Coherently(as describing how these functions work together)
- In a way that is logically consistent and doesn't contradict itself.
- Kant / Kantian(as the philosopher whose theory is being discussed)
- Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German philosopher who argued that our minds actively shape how we experience the world, rather than passively receiving it. 'Kantian' means relating to his ideas.
- consequences(Contested definition within consequentialist theory)
- Future events caused by an act, where the scope depends on which notion of causation is used — either restricted to proximate effects or extended to all upshots for which the act is a causally necessary condition.
- duty(The author argues 'duty' carries a different sense than 'expediency' even under a consequentialist theory.)
- What one is morally obligated to do; distinct in meaning from expediency though potentially co-extensive with it.
- formalism(Applied as a critique of both metaphysics and the sciences in Horkheimer's later work)
- The logical practice of relating facts to concepts in terms of the relation of classes to instances, accomplished by simple deduction, resulting in static universals into which all particulars can be neatly placed
- highest good(Kant's practical philosophy and the Critique of Judgment)
- The concept that sums up the objectives imposed by the free choice of the fundamental principle of morality, encompassing both virtue and the happiness proportional to it, understood as realizable in the natural world.
- moral agent(Defined in contrast to a being whose goodness is fixed or predetermined)
- A being capable of virtue and moral achievement, not necessarily one whose virtuous character is already settled.