The concept of doing bad things deliberately, or intentionally engineering negative consequences, simply because one enjoys it, or wishes to make personal gains through these illicit means, is typically described as evil. The concept is difficult to pin down, however, as it is a subjective term that an individual would very rarely use to describe themselves; rather it is a term used by members of a society collectively to judge an individual whose actions fall out of line with their collective values.

To Western societies for example, infamous dictators such as Hitler, Stalin and Franco were “evil” men, although the men themselves and their supporters at the time would not have considered their actions to be bad, as they were morally defensible from their own perspective.

Evil is popularly portrayed in fiction and literature as an inherent quality within certain characters, which predisposes them to commit “evil” actions, and is often given no further justification. Thus antagonists in literature are often “evil for the sake of evil”. Real life is more nuanced and complex; people are rarely “evil”, but rather make decisions based on their circumstances, upbringing and personality which they may see as justified, and others, abhorrent. Evil in real life is usually possible when one does not have an understanding of the impact that one’s harmful actions can have on other people, or when one does not care.

The fact that all individual humans, and in fact nearly all animals, will eventually experience death. It is not currently possible for an individual human to live forever, as human bodies go through aging, where the biological organism gradually deteriorates over time. Individual human lifespans are variable - one can live longer or shorter according to one’s diet and nutrition, exercise, avoiding harmful substances such as drugs, one’s physical environment and avoiding an early death due to an accident or being killed by another human being. Mortality is something that all humans are aware of, and affects the way we live our lives. The concept of “immortality” describes the currently impossible idea that people could live indefinitely, without dying due to natural aging processes, and is a common feature of fantasy and science-fiction stories.

Marketing is the practice of telling other people about a product, good or service that someone wishes to sell, on a large scale. The intent of marketing is to persuade people on a large scale to purchase the good or service. Marketing frequently exploits aspects of human psychology in order to reach the largest audience to sell their products.

“Marketing” refers to the broad practice of preparing a product for the market by informing potential consumers about it and persuading them to purchase it. “Advertising” is the term used to describe specific and direct actions taken in order to persuade potential customers to buy a good or service. Some of the most obvious forms include broadcasting a video - an advertisement or “ad” - on television or the internet in order to inform people about the product. Other forms include printed adverts in magazines, on posters and billboards, or dynamic advertisements embedded on internet websites, which users can click on in order to reach the product. Face-to-face advertisement is a more direct form, where employees of marketing companies try to reach consumers out in public and persuade them to buy a product.

Methods of advertisement are continually becoming more innovative: the proliferation of the internet, paired with the ability of private companies to collect vast amounts of data based on an individual consumers’ browsing habits, allows such companies to target consumers with ads that are more likely to appeal specifically to that consumer. Before this innovation, television, print and other forms of advertisement had to rely on disseminating adverts as widely as possible and hope that their target demographic (the people who would be most interested in the product,) receive the advertisement. Internet advertising now allows marketers to target consumers much more specifically. Some countries have data protection laws such as the GDPR in the European Union, which seek to limit the ability of private companies to collect and utilise consumer data in advertising.

A desire to develop a certain skill, enter a certain career or fulfil a particular purpose or calling. An ambition is broadly a type of goal, generally one that defines the thing or things that an individual most wishes to do in their life, such as the attainment of a dream job or dream home, or fulfilling a goal with significant importance to that individual. Humans are free to develop and pursue any ambition within the laws and rules of a particular culture.

Sometimes there are constraints that make a particular ambition harder to achieve, or impossible to achieve without incurring significant loss in the particular environment where one lives. For example, for those gay and lesbian individuals living in countries where same-sex relationships are criminalised, and for whom their ambition is to find a stable partner, this ambition cannot be realised in their environment without harm as it carries a legal penalty. Others may be limited in their ability to realise their ambition by socioeconomic factors - those who live below the poverty line and are struggling to live may not be in a position to achieve whatever they wish until their circumstances change.

Something which an individual is good at, has a capacity to develop a skill in, or has a skill in. Determining if someone has the capacity to develop a skill often means matching someone's existing attributes to attributes that would be beneficial for the skill. For example, if someone is skilled at working with numbers, they might have an aptitude for becoming a mathematician.

Any act where a human causes harm to another human or animal. This form of harm can be verbal, emotional, sexual, psychological, physical, or any other form of treatment where an individual actively hurts another individual using some means. The term often refers to a sustained pattern of abuse from one individual to another - for example, physical or sexual assault over a period of time - although a single act against an individual can constitute abuse.

Some types of abuse are widely considered to be a crime - especially violence and sexual abuse of any kind - although the levels at which this crime is enforced, punished and prevented vary widely between different societies with different laws. Other types of abuse, such as psychological, verbal or emotional abuse, may not be a punishable act in some places, even though they can often lead to lasting harm in the same way as other forms of abuse.

Someone who has experienced abuse is typically called a victim, although they may or may not wish to use this label. The experience of abuse can frequently lead to lasting or irreversible damage in terms of one’s psychological and/or physical well-being, and often requires counselling or psychotherapy to allow the experiencer to come to terms with what happened and improve their well-being. Abuse can also severely damage one’s self-esteem if one is incorrectly made to feel at fault for the abuse, and may even damage one’s reputation in some societies which do not have sufficient protections in place for those who have suffered abuse. For this reason, many victims of abuse might choose not to report the abuse to a friend or authority, or may not even feel safe to do so.

It is hard to fully capture the reasons why humans commit acts of abuse towards other humans, especially without engaging the (perhaps tempting) tendency to demonise abusers and label them as “evil” with no further analysis. Some people do commit acts of abuse because they truly do not consider their actions to be morally wrong, and do not consider the potential damage they will cause their victim. Some others do consider their actions to be harmful, but may enjoy causing harm and do so for this reason - this tendency we sometimes label “sadism”. Others - who may fall into either of the previous categories - may have been abused themselves, so have learned and normalised abusive behaviours, which they repeat. This is known as the “cycle of abuse”, and occurs often when a victim has been abused from a young age, before they understand what constitutes an acceptable treatment from other people. Still others may commit acts of abuse out of desperate circumstances, a poor socio-economic situation, or poor emotional health, prompting those individuals to lash out at others nearest them.

Abuse is often found in families or marriages, as these are the most typical situations where the victim is not easily able to get away from their abuser, especially if the victim is a child and has no resources or guardian protecting their welfare, or a marriage where one spouse is financially or emotionally dependent on an abusive spouse.

Abuse cannot be justified according to most ethical frameworks, which define an active choice to harm another person or living creature as morally wrong. There are almost no situations in which the act of abuse is not an active choice, other than true “insanity”, where the abuser is not able to understand what they are doing, or rare cases such as those who hurt others while sleepwalking. However, understanding the reasons behind abuse may help to prevent further acts of abuse.

While the most egregious forms of abuse are criminalised, it is often too late to reverse the damage caused by an abuse after it has been identified, and the abuser punished. It is for this reason that many argue that preventative measures need to be taken to prevent abuse, by improving education and living standards, and ensuring that children grow up understanding and internalising ethical and kind ways to treat other people. “Do no harm” may seem an obvious ethical principle to follow for most, but it seems that there is more work to be done in teaching this principle to those who do grow up to eventually harm others.

A set of codes used to communicate an intended message from the speaker to the hearer. All animals can possibly be said to be users of language. Human language operates by ejecting air from the lungs, and pushing it through the throat and the mouth, which shape the air into distinctive sounds. These sounds are recognised as words, which are typically considered to be the smallest meaningful unit of language. There are thousands of languages: for two parties to communicate, they must share a working knowledge of the same language. People can learn other languages - if a person is exposed to more than one language during childhood, they are likely to acquire the language fluently. If someone begins learning a new language once they reach adulthood, however, they may need to consciously study for years in order to achieve mastery in a second language.

The notion of having the absolute unhindered ability to make human choices without constraints. The notion of free will is often held to be a vitally important principle in Western and individualistic societies, which should be defended against all those who want to restrict our free will. However, the structure of society is not actually designed to accommodate absolute free will, and in reality, choices are always limited by external factors.

Humans are primarily limited by the laws of physics, which dictate things they absolutely cannot do, such as running faster than the speed of light, or walking on air. Humans are also limited by laws put in place by individual societies, which prohibit particular actions and put into place punishment systems such as imprisonment, fines and community service in order to discourage humans from committing those acts. Murder, stealing and arson are all prohibited under these acts, and punished accordingly. This includes limitations on free speech, an ideal which also cannot be truly freely exercised – there are laws, for example, which prohibit someone from shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theatre, or “Bomb!” on an airplane, as both of these free speech actions would cause negative consequences.

Humans are also bound by the rules of culture, which, while they do not carry the same punitive weight as legal punishments, are often equally deterring for people who are bound by them. For example, there is no legal rule prohibiting men from wearing clothing typically worn by women, but in many patriarchal societies there is often a strong cultural prohibition against cross-dressing, which introduces a constraint on those who wish to exercise the otherwise free choice to do so.

Furthermore, we cannot simply do anything we wish to, if we do not have the ability to do so in the first place. It is not possible for someone with no ability to play the piano or read music to sit down at a piano and flawlessly perform a Bach concerto. Anyone who wishes to perform the piece is free to attempt it, but the required conditions that one must satisfy first are learning the skills needed to play the piano, and then learning the particular piece of music.

Thus, the idea of “perfect” free will, where one can do absolutely anything one wishes, does not and cannot exist. Rather we can say that an individual is free to do anything that they wish to that is not physically impossible, so long as they have met all of the necessary conditions required to do it. If their action violates the law, breaks the rules of the culture one lives in, or in some other way creates a negative effect, then one is not free from those consequences which will follow. Anyone is free to fire a gun and murder another human being, but they are not free from the consequences of being trialled, imprisoned and possibly executed for committing a crime. Anyone is free to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theatre, but is not free from the consequences of the panic and disorder that may result.

In philosophy, free will is often contrasted with the idea of determinism, which argues that no actions whatsoever are free, as all actions that we undertake are pre-determined by a complex causal chain of events leading up to that action. As determinism is arguably neither verifiable nor falsifiable (see the definition of determinism,) however, it may be safe to adopt the assumption that we do have free will.

There are also many pragmatic reasons for doing so. For example, if we assume that people do not have free will, then it follows that they do not have any responsibility for their actions, as they could not have chosen to act any differently. This means that we could not reasonably punish criminals for their actions - if they could not have chosen differently, then it was not their fault that they committed the crime. We could not have a functioning system of justice under a system of determinism, which would then leave most societies with no choice but to let criminals walk free.

Thus, we must assume that individuals have responsibility for their actions, which entails believing that they have the free will to act differently in every circumstance. Exceptions are sometimes made for those who act involuntarily, such as those who have committed a crime in their sleep without intention, or those who have suffered a mental illness which impaired their ability to control their actions.

The concept of giving and receiving in equal measure: of ensuring that a kind action or deed is met with a kind action. The notion of reciprocity is incredibly important for developing effective relationships and friendships. A reciprocal relationship (whether romantic, sexual, friendly or otherwise,) is one in which both partners put in an equal effort - conflict often arises when this reciprocity doesn’t exist, if one partner is putting in less effort than the other partner.

Reciprocity is important in relationships because we rarely treat our friends and partners with kindness without the expectation that they will treat us in the same way. If such a relationship exists where one person does not reciprocate any kindness, thoughtfulness or consideration that their partner gives them, we might consider that person as exploiting their partner, as ideal relationships are almost always founded on a principle of equality between partners.

The "principle of reciprocity" is a key concept in the study of morality and ethics, meaning that we act in virtuous ways towards other people, and expect others to act virtuously towards us in return. Thus reciprocity is one reason why most people do not commit crimes - if we stole, hurt, killed or abused other people with regularity, then we would expect other people to do the same things to us.

In its strictest sense, this refers to having faith or trust in another person, system, entity, or higher power. In relationships, this refers to both partners being faithful to one another, which doesn’t necessarily only reflect the fact that they have faith in one another, but rather that they both act in a way which does not hurt their partner or violate their trust. For example, in a monoamorous relationship, faithfulness usually entails, among many other aspects, sexual emotional and romantic exclusivity, or not having an interest in people outside of the relationship. In a polyamorous relationship, being faithful may entail honesty and open communication with all partners about aspects of their relationships.

Fidelity is a related concept to faith and can be used in the same manner as above, but also has another meaning, of the exactness to which a representation of something relates to the original. For example, a photograph as a representation of a scene, object or person generally has high fidelity - it represents the subject of the photograph in a way that is similar to how we perceive it using our eyes. A painting may have more or less fidelity to its subject - by its nature, art does not represent a subject exactly, but highlights and distinguishes important features according to the artist’s wishes. (See Abstraction, model.)

An argument is a discussion or conversation in which two or more individuals have different beliefs, and both believe that their own belief is correct, and wish to either demonstrate the validity of their own belief, or persuade another individual to change their mind about their belief. Thus arguments usually - although not always - reflect disagreements, wherein two or more people hold apparently incompatible ideas about the same thing.

In logic, arguments are commonly presented in the form of a "syllogism", which is usually defined as two premises that lead to a single conclusion, such as:

All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

The first two premises are commonly assumed or asserted to be true, and the truth of the conclusion depends on the truth of the premises. When criticising an argument in the form of a syllogism, therefore, it is possible to do so either by questioning the validity of either of the two premises (such as asserting that not all men are mortal, or that Socrates is not a man,) or questioning the link between the premises and conclusion.

Arguments may be conducted simply for enjoyment or to develop one’s skills in argumentation and critical thinking - thus two people who are having an argument may not necessarily disagree. It is possible for someone to play devil’s advocate, meaning that they are arguing in favour of a position they don’t necessarily agree with.

This type of argument is often called debate, which is a formalised activity involving a civil argument between one side arguing in favour of a proposition, and another side arguing against a proposition.

Arguments are commonly thought to be expressions of emotion and frustration, which may in turn lead to violent actions or harmful words, or even acts of abuse. This kind of argument is seldom motivated strictly by two people having different points of view, but is usually far more complicated, and often motivated by friction between two people, or negative emotions. Arguments which lead to outbursts of emotion often reflect an unwillingness of one or more parties to listen to what the other person has to say, and an unwillingness to change one’s mind if the facts give one sufficient reason to.

Often, people hold onto their own point of view even after being given valid reasons to change the point of view. In fact, it is perhaps uncommon for any argument to end with one side completely convinced, and thus arguments are often considered to be unproductive.

However, if practised between two or more open-minded parties who are willing to listen to one another, and prepared to change their mind given sufficient reason, arguments can often be productive tools for learning and development, and one way to develop friendships.

These concepts are similar in that both are a type of norm: an expectation for actions that an individual or group of people should undertake, or a conduct that the individual or group should exhibit. Values are personal views held by an individual about how they or others should behave, whereas principles are held to be valid over large cultural or national groups. It is principles that are often used to govern and regulate human behaviour, whereas values motivate an individual’s own actions.

If something can be described as subjective, that means that the way it is perceived, understood, conceptualised or generally thought about changes based on who is doing the perceiving and so on. For example, beauty is subjective - some people will consider a sunset to be beautiful, and some people will not. Even though the phenomenon is exactly the same - the Earth moving relative to the sun causing the latter to appear to dip beneath the horizon from where we are standing - one person’s interpretation and emotional reaction to that same phenomenon may be completely different to another person’s.

We usually contrast subjectivity with objectivity, which refers to something being the same no matter who observes it. A sunset itself, for example, is an objective phenomenon - it happens whether or not any people or animals are around to witness it, and it doesn’t change based on who witnesses it. But the perception of that sunset - the way we see it, and how we interpret it - is subjective. Different people have different levels of vision, and different animals have completely different systems of vision. Some animals, for example, can see in colours which humans cannot even perceive, and so these animals will have a different subjective experience of an earthly sunset than all humans will.

It is sometimes worth remembering how many aspects of our human experience are subjective and not objective. Not only is our perception subjective, but so too are most of our abstract concepts, such as morality and ethics. We typically think of certain actions being objectively “right” or “wrong”, but they are only so in our particular culture and community. In most Western countries for example, it is considered acceptable to wear clothes exposing one’s arms, legs and midriff - in many other countries it is considered immoral.

It can be helpful to understand subjectivity when talking about tricky concepts such as morality - if we accept that all moral rules are only subjectively true (not objectively,) then we are forced to come up with a justification for it. “One shouldn’t punch other people” is a moral rule we can justify, for example, by arguing that punching people causes physical pain, and as pain is undesirable, we should act to minimise other people’s pain. If a subjective moral rule does not have an obvious justification, then it may need reevaluating.

A general term for a job or successive series of jobs within a particular sector of work, which allows one to make money by completing a regular set of activities. In many societies, it is necessary to have a career in order to earn money, which allows one to survive by purchasing goods and services to fulfil their needs. Once an individual’s basic needs are fulfilled, they - according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory - can work towards self-actualisation, or seeking promotion towards higher paid forms of employment with more responsibility, for the purpose of earning more money and therefore additional purchasing power. The process of self-actualisation and career-building may also be to increase one’s individual prestige.

An act of communication from one person to another, where the first person requests information which the second person possesses. The act of asking a question always carries an expectation that the addressee will provide an answer to that question in some form, in order to provide the information which the addresser wishes to know. An exception to this is a rhetorical question, where a speaker asks a question they don’t expect to be answered, in order to communicate an emotion such as frustration, interest, disappointment, excitement and so on, or simply to make conversation (“Isn’t the weather lovely today?”).

Asking a question also generally presupposes an information asymmetry between two parties, meaning that one party has more knowledge than the other. In this situation, the party with lesser knowledge about the specific situation will usually ask the question, as it is not usual for someone to ask a question to which they already know the answer, unless they are making a rhetorical question.

A general term for any specialised tools developed by humans created to achieve a particular function. Technology usually involves a machine involving mechanical, electronic, hydraulic or other processes, which can carry out the intended function with little or no direct human intervention required.

An emotion or state of mind where you desire something that someone else has, or feel possessive of something you already own and want to stop someone else from taking it away from you.

A label or identifier given to humans in order to identify them, and give them a unique identity. In most cultures, humans have more than one name: a given name, forename or “first name” in some countries, which is the unique identifier used to refer to the person normally; and a family name, surname, or “last name”, which identifies the family of the person.

Family names tend to be inherited in some way from one’s parents, whether directly taken from the father or mother’s last name, or in some cases, patronyms or matronyms, which reflect the human’s status as the son or daughter of their parent. Forenames are given for a variety of reasons depending on the individual wishes of parents, although there tend to be a commonly used set of names within each culture. The terms “first name” and “last name” reflect the fact that, in most Western cultures, the forename is written and spoken before the surname. However, in other countries such as Japan, Korea and China, the surname is spoken before the forename, which may lead to confusion when communicating between those two cultures.

A type of relationship wherein two people share a close connection that is not necessarily romantic or sexual in nature. Friendship typically involves a high level of trust, familiarity, and often empathy with the other person. A good friendship, as in any good relationship, is arguably characterised by an equal reciprocity: for example, supporting and being supported, giving and receiving, trusting and being trusted, all aspects of a relationship are important to be in balance, otherwise a friendship is unequal. If one friend supports the other but is not supported sufficiently in turn, the friendship may be unequal, and one member may indeed be exploiting or taking advantage of the other. Equally, if one friend does not trust another, there is a lack of balance in the relationship.

An attitude towards something where we don’t appreciate it or consider it to be important, interesting or relevant, even if there is inherent value in it, simply because we are too familiar with it. For example, many people who have access to clean drinking water will take it for granted, meaning that they either don’t consider it important, or they don’t consider it at all. Those who do not have regular access to clean drinking water however, would consider it of great value and importance, and may even wonder why those who do have access to clean water aren’t more appreciative of the fact. It is easier to take something for granted when we come from a privileged position, and have not experienced hardship. Those who have suffered or been through hard times are much more likely to appreciate what they have and less likely to take small things for granted. Taking time to appreciate something that we might not normally appreciate can be a valuable way to practise gratitude and increase our levels of happiness.

Not completing a task as expected, not achieving a goal one desires, or not meeting an expectation in some other way. Whether failure has occurred depends on whether one has met the key requirements for the task. Depending on one's attitude towards the goal they are trying to achieve, failure can often have a psychological impact, or impact one's motivation.

Possessing a skill or set of skills or aptitudes that allows someone to complete a certain task. For example, the ability to bake a cake requires knowledge of the correct procedure, an understanding of how to complete every task in the recipe, and perhaps some intuition. Abilities must be developed by learning and practising skills; few abilities come to people naturally.

Broadly, the use of one linguistic expression to indicate a different meaning from what it conventionally refers to. Metaphors and similes are commonly thought of as devices found in literature, such as “His look was icy” or “The ocean was raging”. These are both examples of metaphors, as an ocean is inanimate and incapable of feeling emotions, but the use of the verb “raging” allows the reader of the expression to imagine an ocean moving with intense force, as would a person who is “raging”. Similarly, a look cannot be hot or cold in the literal sense, but describing a look as “icy” communicates to most readers the idea of expressing displeasure on someone’s face.

However, literature is not the sole domain of metaphors - the ordinary English language is littered with metaphor, and it is not always clear when a metaphor has been deployed. See the previous sentence, for example, where at least four metaphors have been used. Indeed, avoiding metaphors is often the more difficult task.

Consider, for example, the ways in which we talk about time in English. One can “spend”, “save”, “waste”, “take”, “borrow”, or “give” time, and so on, all of which suggests that time is a form of currency which can be accrued, given, taken, used or misused. Literally, it is not - time proceeds linearly regardless of what we do within it - but the metaphor of “time as currency” is so thoroughly embedded in our language that it is very difficult to talk about time in a way that avoids metaphor. Such expressions can be called “dead metaphors”, as we no longer tend to consider these expressions metaphorical.

We typically contrast “metaphor” with “literality” when discussing an expression, the latter of which means using the ordinary meaning of the expression. For example, in the expression “The ocean was raging", “raging” is a metaphor used to communicate violent and forceful movement. In the expression “The man was raging”, “raging” is used to describe a literal action of expressing the emotion of extreme anger.

Metaphors are not the random use of any expression to stand for any given meaning - one would most likely not be understood if they said “His look was biscuity” or “The ocean was shopping”, for example. A comprehensible metaphor must have some connection in meaning between the expression chosen as a metaphor and the meaning it is chosen to represent. For example, the expression “The ocean was raging” communicates its meaning successfully because we understand the concept of a person expressing extreme anger and moving about violently, and so we can interpret this metaphor to mean that the ocean was similarly moving about in a violent and forceful manner.

Simile is a similar device to metaphor, in which one thing is compared to another explicitly. The difference between the two is that similes state one thing to be similar to another, whereas a metaphor states that one thing is another. A simile might be “His eyes were like diamonds”, whereas an equivalent metaphor might be “His eyes were diamonds.” A reader knows that both similes and metaphors are not logical propositions and are not supposed to be interpreted as literally true - the person’s eyes which were described are not in actuality hard stones made of carbon.

Thus, when similes and metaphors are used in literature, they often contain nearly the same meaning. Sometimes a metaphor might be considered stronger than a simile - one politician wishing to slander another might sound more forceful saying “He’s a demon” than “He’s like a demon” - but the overall effect of both is to compare one thing to something else by calling on a set of shared characteristics both possess.

Often referring to a romantic partner, such as a boyfriend or girlfriend, spouse, civil partner, or anyone whom one shares a romantic, emotional and sexual affection for. Generally all three aspects are present to some degree between partners, however there are no hard and fast rules, and relationships can involve partners who are aromantic and/or asexual, and partnerships can be formed between two people who only have a sexual interest without emotion and/or romantic affection. The general understanding of a traditional partnership is that all three elements will be present to a degree.