The Metaphors of Conscientia in Seneca’s Epistles

Seneca’s masterful application of metaphors often illuminates some Stoic technical terminology in contexts, which render them meaningful and familiar to his Roman readers. In this paper I argue that in certain instances, these metaphors are also used to organize whole systems of concepts that refer to an essential theoretical component of Seneca’s philosophy. By studying the literary and philosophical context of these metaphors, I reconstruct Seneca’s requirement for moral self-improvement in his Epistles and propose that his conception of conscientia or ‘moral conscience’—a notion scattered throughout his writings but which, as the examination of his systematic metaphors will prove, has a consistent, identical function everywhere it appears—points to some novel rational characteristics of the philosopher’s conception of the self.

Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology

This chapter explains Buddhist ethics as moral phenomenology, that is, as a theory of the transformation of our moral experience of ourselves, others, and the world. It compares Buddhist “input ethics” to Western “output ethics” and explains how Buddhist practice aims at developing a less pathological, less egocentric view of our place in the world by cultivating a sense of interdependence. The discussion is grounded in Śāntideva’s Bodhicāryāvatāra, and explores his insights on anger, aversion, vice, and generosity. Śāntideva argues for the importance of developing our moral self-awareness, and changing the way we view suffering, both of ourselves and others.

Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith

Christian and Muslim schools have become important target points in families and pupils' quests for new study opportunities and securing a 'good life' in Tanzania. These schools combine secular education with the moral (self-)formation of young people, triggering new realignments of the fields of education with interreligious co-existence and class formation in the country's urban centres. Hansjörg Dilger explores the emerging entanglements of faith, morality, and the educational market in Dar es Salaam, thereby shedding light on processes of religious institutionalisation and their individual and collective embodiment. By contextualising these dynamics through analysis of the politics of Christian-Muslim relations in postcolonial Tanzania, this book shows how the field of education has shaped the positions of these highly diverse religious communities in diverging ways. In doing so, Dilger suggests that students and teachers' religious experience and practice in faith-oriented schools are shaped by the search for socio-moral belonging as well as by the power relations and inequalities of an interconnected world.

Philosophical Value of the Confucian Treatise "Kong-Zi Jia Yu"

This article reveals the philosophical value of the Confucian treatise "Kong-zi jia yu," it examines issues of the theoretical importance for the history of world sinology. In the historicо-philosophical tradition, this text has long been attributed to the Confucian scientist Van Su (3rd century), however, not so long ago the situation changed significantly. In the modern scientific community, disputes around the authorship and time of writing this treatise continue. The content of "Kong-zi jia yu" is composed of stories from the life of Confucius, his conversations with his closest students, as well as prominent political figures of that time. These conversations are philosophical dialogues, they concern the most important ontological, ethical, aesthetic and epistemological issues, such as: harmonization of the Tianxia on the basis of virtuous management, the philosophical need for ritual practice, cosmological device of the Tianxia, issues traditional for early Confucianism of a pedagogical and educational nature, moral self-improvement. The diverse theme of "Kong-zi jia yu" is a valuable source that reveals the essence of the philosophy of early Confucianism. Individual fragments of "Kong-zi jia yu" coincide with the classic Confucian monuments "Shang shu," "Lun yu," "Xiao jing," etc. Although "Kong-zi jia yu" for a number of reasons, is not considered a classic text of Confucianism, but it carries an enduring philosophical value. The study of "Kong-zi jia yu" seems to the author of this work to be an urgent scientific task, the solution of which can expand the arsenal of world philosophical knowledge, as well as contribute to the dialogue of the philosophical cultures of the East and West.

Understanding the Spread of Sustained Employee Volunteering: How Volunteers Influence Their Coworkers’ Moral Identity Work

Employee volunteering has become a common phenomenon in many organizations. However, it is unclear how sustained volunteering spreads between colleagues. Drawing on an empirical study set in the English legal profession, this study examines the processes through which existing employee volunteers influence their coworkers to internalize a volunteer identity. The study yields a theoretical model that specifies how coworkers may identify existing volunteers as moral exemplars. Five forms of social influence emanate, often unknowingly, from these exemplars: encouraging, evoking, edifying, enacting, and exemplifying. These forms of social influence inform coworkers’ microprocess of moral identity work through which they claim a volunteer identity. This study thereby shifts attention from the well-theorized outcomes of moral identities to the largely unexamined social influences on moral identities in the workplace, enriching our understanding of the development of the moral self that is foundational to theories of volunteering and identity.

Classification of responsibilities according to the teachings of I. Kant

The article is devoted to the disclosure of the species classification of obligations according to I. Kant`s doctrine. It has been studied that all obligations, in I. Kant`s opinion, can be or legal or moral. The German thinker divides obligations based on the following criteria. The first criterion is the objective attitude of the law to the obligation. These are perfect and imperfect obligations, which include the obligation to oneself and the obligation to others. The second criterion for the division of obligations is the subjective attitude to the obligated subject. The author emphasizes that the thinker also identifies the possibility of dividing the human obligations to oneself on the basis of objective and subjective criteria. According to objective criteria, obligations can be negative or positive. Negatives are those that mean only moral self-preservation. Positive obligations lead to self-improvement. According to subjective criterion, Kant divides obligations into those which concern only the human animal nature and those which concern man as a moral being. The article also draws attention to the philosopher's classification of human obligations to others into several subgroups: human obligations to others only as people; human obligations to others out of respect for them, which they deserve; human obligations to others in terms of their position. Human obligations to others only as to people are concentrated by the thinker around the phenomena of love and respect. Human obligations to others out of respect for them, which they deserve, are reciprocal, that is, the person, on the one hand, can demand respect from others, and on the other hand, this person must treat others with respect. Human obligations s to others in terms of their position should be seen not so much as obligations, but as rules that change depending on the subjects of the principle of virtue to the cases that occur in experience.

Representation of Self-Concept in the Collection of Children's Stories from Bobo Magazine

As construction of thought, self-concept will continue to grow and develop following the life experiences, one of which can come from stories. Therefore, this study aims to uncover and describe indicators of self-concept from children's stories. The data was obtained based on ten children's stories from the online version of Bobo magazine published in 2019-2020. This research used the content analysis method with categorization and tabulation until inference was found. The results revealed that Bobo magazine had implied self-concepts in the published stories. Among them, such as self-identity related to the labels attached by other characters as well as the character's desire to be what kind of self; personal behavior related to the views of other characters and figures in viewing their behavior; and self-judgment related to the acceptance or rejection of the character's behavior. Then, the physical self-concept associated with gender and character skills; moral self-concept related to the character's ability to control his behavior; personal self-concept related to good relations between characters; family self-concept related to the character's relationship with his family members; and social self-concept related to the character's relationship with his peers. These findings appear to confirm the representation of self-concepts in Indonesian children's short stories.

The Making of Islamic Economic Thought

Interrogating the development and conceptual framework of economic thought in the Islamic tradition pertaining to ethical, philosophical, and theological ideas, this book provides a critique of modern Islamic economics as a hybrid economic system. From the outset, Sami Al-Daghistani is concerned with the polyvalent methodology of studying the phenomenon of Islamic economic thought as a human science in that it nurtures a complex plentitude of meanings and interpretations associated with the moral self. By studying legal scholars, theologians, and Sufis in the classical period, Al-Daghistani looks at economic thought in the context of Sharī'a's moral law. Alongside critiquing modern developments of Islamic economics, he puts forward an idea for a plural epistemology of Islam's moral economy, which advocates for a multifaceted hermeneutical reading of the subject in light of a moral law, embedded in a particular cosmology of human relationality, metaphysical intelligibility, and economic subjectivity.