Moral laws and moral worth

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliot Salinger
Keyword(s):  
Moral Worth

Formal Independence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Kosch
Keyword(s):  
Moral Evil ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Material Condition

Chapter 4 explains Fichte’s conception of formal independence or conscientiousness, which has two aspects (a ‘formal’ and a ‘material’ aspect, the latter not to be confused with material independence). Fichte’s account is compared with Kant’s, and the two are shown to be in more agreement than has previously been thought. The independence of the material condition on moral worth from this formal one is shown to be entailed by Fichte’s account of the role of conscience (rather than, as is often thought, being inconsistent with it). Finally, Fichte’s account of moral evil is explained and its consistency with his account of conscience examined.

Plato on Education as the Development of Reason

1998 ◽  
pp. 255-260
Author(s):  
Samuel Scolnicov
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Moral Luck ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Real Objects

Socrates' great educational innovation was in ascribing moral worth to the intellectual activity reflectively directed at one's own life. His concept of eudaimonia was so different from the ordinary that talking about it took on sometimes a paradoxical air, as in Apology 30b3. For him, reason is not a tool for attaining goals independently thought worthwhile; rather, rationality itself, expressed in the giving of reasons and the avoidance of contradictions, confers value to goals and opinions. Persons are reasonable, but obviously not the empirical human being. But education is aimed at the empirical man or woman and inevitably employs psychological means. How then is it possible that the result of education should grow out of the depths of each individual and be nevertheless valid for all individuals? In the Symposium, Plato gives Aristophanes the crucial move. Each of us is only half the whole person and we are moved by our desire for what we lack. In this context, to claim that the soul is immortal is to claim-at least-that the soul has a non-empirical dimension, that its real objects are not the objects of desire as such, and that a person's sensible life is not the true basis for the evaluation of his or her eudaimonia. However, in the soul which is not free from contradictions there is no advantage to right but unexamined options. There is in the life of the naïve just an insecurity which is not merely pragmatic. Even if a person never falters to the end of life, this is no more than moral luck. One is still guilty on the level of the logos, and liable to blame and punishment not for what one does, but for what one could have done.

Post-Heroic Warfare Revisited: Meaning and Legitimation of Military Losses

Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Frisk
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Engagement ◽  
Military Campaign ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

The article challenges the thesis that western societies have moved towards a post-heroic mood in which military casualties are interpreted as nothing but a waste of life. Using content analysis and qualitative textual analysis of obituaries produced by the Royal Danish Army in memory of soldiers killed during the Second World War (1940–1945) and the military campaign in Afghanistan (2002–2014), the article shows that a ‘good’ military death is no longer conceived of as a patriotic sacrifice, but is instead legitimised by an appeal to the unique moral worth, humanitarian goals and high professionalism of the fallen. The article concludes that fatalities in international military engagement have invoked a sense of post-patriotic heroism instead of a post-heroic crisis, and argues that the social order of modern society has underpinned, rather than undermined, ideals of military self-sacrifice and heroism, contrary to the predominant assumption of the literature on post-heroic warfare.

Reasons First

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Justify Belief ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Common Currency ◽  
Normative Concepts ◽  
The World ◽  
Explanatory Priority

The last fifty years or more of ethical theory have been preoccupied by a turn to reasons. The vocabulary of reasons has become a common currency not only in ethics, but in epistemology, action theory, and many related areas. It is now common, for example, to see central theses such as evidentialism in epistemology and egalitarianism in political philosophy formulated in terms of reasons. And some have even claimed that the vocabulary of reasons is so useful precisely because reasons have analytical and explanatory priority over other normative concepts—that reasons in that sense come first. Reasons First systematically explores both the benefits and burdens of the hypothesis that reasons do indeed come first in normative theory, against the conjecture that theorizing in both ethics and epistemology can only be hampered by neglect of the other. Bringing two decades of work on reasons in both ethics and epistemology to bear, Mark Schroeder argues that some of the most important challenges to the idea that reasons could come first are themselves the source of some of the most obstinate puzzles in epistemology—about how perceptual experience could provide evidence about the world, and about what can make evidence sufficient to justify belief. And he shows that along with moral worth, one of the very best cases for the fundamental explanatory power of reasons in normative theory actually comes from knowledge.

scholarly journals Planetary well-being

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teea Kortetmäki ◽  
Mikael Puurtinen ◽  
Miikka Salo ◽  
Riikka Aro ◽  
Stefan Baumeister ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Social Protests ◽  
The Future ◽  
Bridging Concept

Tensions between the well-being of present humans, future humans, and nonhuman nature manifest in social protests and political and academic debates over the future of Earth. The increasing consumption of natural resources no longer increases, let alone equalises, human well-being, but has led to the current ecological crisis. While the crisis has been acknowledged, it is often approached in human-centred terms, with framings that limit the moral worth of nonhuman nature to its contribution to human well-being. We derive and propose the concept of planetary well-being to recognise the moral considerability of both human and nonhuman well-being, and to promote transdisciplinary, cross-cultural discourse for addressing ecological and social crises and for promoting societal and cultural transformation. Conceptually, we shift focus in well-being from individuals to Earth system and ecosystem processes that underlie all well-being. Planetary well-being is a state where the integrity of Earth system and ecosystem processes remains unimpaired to a degree that species and populations can persist to the future and organisms have the opportunity to achieve well-being. After grounding and introducing planetary well-being, we shortly discuss how it can be measured and reflect upon its potential as a bridging concept between different worldviews.

scholarly journals Moral Worth and Moral Hobbies

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (20201214) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ryan Lockhart
Keyword(s):  
Moral Worth

scholarly journals Valuation of Morality and Mind: Morality as a Metacognitive Byproduct

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Baxter
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Inanimate Object ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
High Valuation ◽  
Mental Properties

The organism has evolved to view itself as a sentient being. It is theorised that morality is a byproduct of the high valuation of mental properties (the nature of its theory of mind). Five studies were conducted with 2675 participants. A positive association was confirmed between valuation of explicit morality, neutral (general) mind as measured by sentience, and significance of (specific) mind as measured by integrity (1). The moral worth ratings of a protagonist were affected by manipulating perceived significance of mind as expressed by scope and intensity of thought (2). 50% of participants thought morality applies exclusively to creatures with minds (3). A positive association was found between the self-awareness and moral worth ratings of a variety of creatures and human characters (4). Furthermore, the moral worth ratings of a human being and `philosophical phantom' (sentient inanimate object) were greater than those of a philosophical zombie and rock (5). Like H. Gray et al. [1], this research suggests that morality is based on the belief in mind (1-5). Specifically, the results suggest that valuation of experience (sentience) and agency (significance of mind) are not independent, as assignment of morality appears preconditioned upon the perception of (or assumption of) sentience (5). Furthermore, contrary to dyadic models [2], preliminary analysis supported the prediction of self and other-directed morality (1).

scholarly journals From creator to data: the post-record music industry and the digital conglomerates

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Negus
Keyword(s):  
Economic Value ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Artistic Expression ◽  
Recorded Music ◽  
Commercial Form ◽  
Emergent Dynamics ◽  
Digital Recordings

This article contributes to research on the changing music industries by identifying three dynamics that underpin the shift towards a post-record music industry. First, it examines how musicians have found themselves redefined as content providers rather than creative producers; a historical change from recorded music as product to content. Second, it focuses on tensions between YouTube and recording artists as symptomatic of disputes about the changing artistic and economic value of recorded music. Third, it extends this debate about the market and moral worth of music by exploring how digital recordings have acquired value as data, rather than as a commercial form of artistic expression. The article explores how digital conglomerates have become ever-more significant in shaping the circulation of recordings and profiting from the work of musicians, and highlights emergent dynamics, structures and patterns of conflict shaping the recording sector specifically, and music industries more generally.

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