Ethics and Values / Unit 5 Ethics 204 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Maxims
Captions available
The idea
A maxim is the personal policy behind an action — the rule an agent is actually acting on, stated honestly, without decoration.
In practice
A clerk padding one taxi receipt acts on "pad expenses when amounts are small." The policy behind the instance is what gets examined.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Ethics and Values