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CIRCUMSTANCES The condition or state of affairs surrounding a moral decision; these include the consequences of an action. CIRCUMSTANCES The conditions that can increase or diminish the responsibility of a person, but they cannot change the moral quality of the acts themselves and they never make good an act which is in itself evil. CONSEQUENTIALISM An ethical system that determines the goodness or evilness from the effect or result of an act. END The primary goal of the intention and the purpose pursued in an action. FUNDAMENTAL OPTION The free and responsible choice a person makes to orient, in a radical manner, his whole existence in a moral direction toward good or evil. INTENTION A movement of the will toward an end. OBJECT That toward which the will directs itself. This is distinct from the intention that a person has when performing the act. PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT An act may be performed, even if accompanied by an unintended bad effect, if the act itself is good or indifferent, the good effect far outreaches the bad effect, and the intention of the act is the good effect. PROPORTIONALISM An ethical system that deduces the moral value of an act from the proportion of good and evil effects. SITUATION ETHICS An ethical system that determines the good or evil nature of an act from the circumstances that accompany the act. UNIVERSALITY The ability to be applied to everyone in every situation. MORAL RELATIVISM The belief that there are no absolute truths, and that morality changes with each new situation. RATIONALISM The doctrine that rejects supernatural revelation and makes reason the sole source of knowledge.