Reforming Reformed Religion: J. S. Mill's Critique of the Enlightenment's Natural Religion

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT DEVIGNE
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Natural Religion ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Sensitive Issue ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual

John Stuart Mill's writings on religion, a neglected topic in the secondary literature, deserve careful examination because they challenge the long-standing view that liberalism opposes conceptions of the best life. Mill himself considers religion responsible for perfecting the individual and a crucial dimension of his moral theory. In his view, developing a conception of the best life will be difficult in England because it requires broaching a sensitive issue that the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment did not comprehend: namely, that the Enlightenment's reformed Christianity is too great a compromise with traditional or revealed Christianity. If English liberalism is to generate a comprehensive morality for the future, argues Mill, reformed Christianity must be further reformed to create a culture that fosters human flourishing. A comparison of Mill's views of Christianity with those of Kant and Hegel provides a window for viewing their different visions of the morality of the future. The contrast provides further evidence that liberalism, in Mill's view, is not nearly as narrow a moral outlook as many commentators on liberalism, whether admirers or critics, believe.

Hermeneutic circle in development of methodological culture of future music teacher

2017 ◽  
pp. 154-158
Author(s):  
A. S. Koval
Keyword(s):  
Future Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Hermeneutic Circle ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Text Understanding ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Positive Effect

This article is devoted to the studying hermeneutic circle in the development of methodological culture of future music teacher. Under the conditions of globalization processes, tendencies of convergence of world cultures improvement of culturological training of student youth requires new approaches, in particular, culturological training of students of pedagogical specialties. The task of pedagogical education is to develop a teacher as a specialist and as a person of high culture, who has a special positive effect on the personality of school student. This article analyses the works of scientists dedicated to the issues of establishment and development of the hermeneutic approach in philosophical, psychological, and logical and gnosiological contexts. It is defined the essence of the concept of “hermeneutic circle” as one of the basic principles of the hermeneutic approach. There have been provided the examples of interpretation of the principle of hermeneutic circle by various scientists. Hermeneutic approach is applied in sciences such as pedagogy, psychology, economics, sociology etc. In pedagogical science the hermeneutic approach at the level of conceptual use was elaborated by A. Zakirova. She introduced the term “pedagogical hermeneutics”. Hermeneutic circle as a principle of text understanding is based on the interrelation of the part and the whole. Understanding of the whole consists of the understanding of the individual parts, and understanding of the parts requires understanding of the whole. The concepts of the part and the whole are correlated: the text is a part concerning the whole creative activity of the author, which in its turn is a part of the particular genre or literature in general, as well as the part of spiritual life and biography of the author. The idea of hermeneutic circle means also that there is no understanding of the text without certain prerequisites: understanding is preceded by some idea of what is yet to understand. There have been determined the peculiarities of the use of the principle of hermeneutic circle in the development of methodological culture of the future teacher of musical art. In light of hermeneutical trends, the penetration of which in the realm of musical art can be traced quite clearly, the use of the hermeneutic circle principle in the development of methodological culture of the future teacher of musical art appears not only in the narrow interpretation of the particular phenomenon or group of phenomena, but much wider — as a means of learning and understanding of the worldview by a person.

Relational Ethics and Partiality

Theoria ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (152) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motsamai Molefe
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Relational Ethics ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIn this article, I question the plausibility of Metz’s African moral theory from an oft neglected moral topic of partiality. Metz defends an Afro-communitarian moral theory that posits that the rightness of actions is entirely definable by relationships of identity and solidarity (or, friendship). I offer two objections to this relational moral theory. First, I argue that justifying partiality strictly by invoking relationships (of friendship) ultimately fails to properly value the individual for her own sake – this is called the ‘focus problem’ in the literature. Second, I argue that a relationship-based theory cannot accommodate the agent-related partiality since it posits some relationship to be morally fundamental. My critique ultimately reveals the inadequacy of a relationship-based moral theory insofar as it overlooks some crucial moral considerations grounded on the individual herself in her own right.

CREATING THE SITUATION OF SUCCESS IN THE HUMAN SCIENCES – A PREREQUISITE FOR THE HUMANIZATION OF EDUCATION

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
Ayta Sakun ◽  
Tatiana Kadlubovich ◽  
Darina Chernyak
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Creative Potential ◽  
Modern Education ◽  
Future Success ◽  
Cognitive Motivation ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual

The problem of success became relevant at the beginning of the XXI century. Everyone strives to succeed, to be confident in themselves and in the future. Success is recognized as one of the needs of the individual. Reforming modern education is designed to make it human-centered, effective, close to the practical needs of the learner. The humanization of education is impossible without creating situations of success in learning. Such situations activate a person's cognitive motivation, reveal his creative potential, make a person strong and confident. To create situations of success, teachers use a variety of methods and tools that enhance the cognitive activity of students.

Pathways to Success Through Identity-Based Motivation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Oyserman
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Core ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
The Future ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Fidelity Measures ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Minimal Effort

Everyone can imagine their future self, even very young children, and this future self is usually positive and education-linked. To make progress toward an aspired future or away from a feared future requires people to plan and take action. Unfortunately, most people often start too late and commit minimal effort to ineffective strategies that lead their attention elsewhere. As a result, their high hopes and earnest resolutions often fall short. In Pathways to Success Through Identity-Based Motivation Daphna Oyserman focuses on situational constraints and affordances that trigger or impede taking action. Focusing on when the future-self matters and how to reduce the shortfall between the self that one aspires to become and the outcomes that one actually attains, Oyserman introduces the reader to the core theoretical framework of identity-based motivation (IBM) theory. IBM theory is the prediction that people prefer to act in identity-congruent ways but that the identity-to-behavior link is opaque for a number of reasons (the future feels far away, difficulty of working on goals is misinterpreted, and strategies for attaining goals do not feel identity-congruent). Oyserman's book goes on to also include the stakes and how the importance of education comes into play as it improves the lives of the individual, their family, and their society. The framework of IBM theory and how to achieve it is broken down into three parts: how to translate identity-based motivation into a practical intervention, an outline of the intervention, and empirical evidence that it works. In addition, the book also includes an implementation manual and fidelity measures for educators utilizing this book to intervene for the improvement of academic outcomes.

Reasons to Worry: Interest and Love

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Scheffler
Keyword(s):  
Future Generations ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Future ◽  
Reasons Of Love

Apart from considerations of beneficence, we have reasons of at least four different kinds to ensure the survival of future generations under conditions conducive to human flourishing. This chapter explores two of those categories of reason: reasons of love and reasons of interest. Reasons of love rest on the fact that the fate of humanity matters to us in its own right. Reasons of interest appeal to our self-interest: that is, to our interest in leading lives engaged in worthwhile activities. These two categories of reason are conceptually independent, but it is partly because the future of humanity matters to us in its own right that the survival of future generations is in our interest.

Temporal Focus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbie J. Shipp
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavior Based ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Temporal Focus

Temporal focus is the individual tendency to characteristically think more or less about the past, present, and future. Although originally rooted in early work from psychology, research on temporal focus has been steadily growing in a number of research areas, particularly since Zimbardo and Boyd’s (1999) influential article on the topic. This chapter will review temporal focus research from the past to the present, including how temporal focus has been conceptualized and measured, and which correlates and outcomes have been tested in terms of well-being and behavior. Based on this review, an agenda for research is created to direct temporal focus research in the future.

scholarly journals Nudge Versus Boost: Agency Dynamics Under Libertarian Paternalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 130 (629) ◽  
pp. 1384-1415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Hertwig ◽  
Michael D Ryall
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Libertarian Paternalism ◽  
The Future ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACT Thaler and Sunstein (2008) advance the concept of ‘nudge’ policies—non-regulatory and non-fiscal mechanisms designed to enlist people's cognitive biases or motivational deficits so as to guide their behaviour in a desired direction. A core assumption of this approach is that policymakers make artful use of people's cognitive biases and motivational deficits in ways that serve the ultimate interests of the nudged individual. We analyse a model of dynamic policymaking in which the policymaker's preferences are not always aligned with those of the individual. One novelty of our set-up is that the policymaker has the option to implement a ‘boost’ policy, equipping the individual with the competence to overcome the nudge-enabling bias once and for all. Our main result identifies conditions under which the policymaker chooses not to boost in order to preserve the option of using the nudge (and its associated bias) in the future—even though boosting is in the immediate best interests of both the policymaker and the individual. We extend our analysis to situations in which the policymaker can be removed (e.g., through an election) and in which the policymaker is similarly prone to bias. We conclude with a discussion of some policy implications of these findings.

Some Psychological Aspects of the Belief in Immortality

1919 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-314
Author(s):  
James Bissett Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Related Question ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Pure Theory ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual

The individual's attitude toward the Determiner of Destiny, which is religion, has always an essentially practical coloring. It involves a belief, to be sure, but this belief is never a matter of pure theory; it bears a reference, more or less explicit, to the fate of the individual's values. Hence in nearly every religion which history has studied or anthropology discovered, the question of the future in store for the individual believer has been one of prime importance. The content of this belief is a question for the theologian and the historian of religion; the psychologist, however, may be able to throw some light on the related question why people believe, or fail to believe, in immortality at all. What, in short, are the psychological sources from which this belief springs, and what are the leading types of this belief?

„Zurück zur Individualität!“ Die Rezeption moderner Religionsphilosophie im Hochland in der Weimarer Zeit

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-241
Author(s):  
Paul Silas Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
German Language ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The monthly magazine Hochland was probably the most influential Catholic cultural periodical in Germany in the Weimar Period. According to Georg Cardinal von Kopp’s assessment in 1911, it was “unfortunately the most read periodical in all of the educated circles of Germany, Austria and German Switzerland”. Moving beyond the simple rejection of modern culture in Germany, the journal tried to follow a new program of mediatory engagement, although it did continue to hold to traditional positions in many regards. In this article the reception of modern, Enlightenment-affirmative philosophy of religion in the journal is introduced with reference to reviews and essays from the later 1910s to the early 1930s. The journal’s treatment of a few critical subject areas is given close interpretive analysis, including the journal’s treatment of Gertrud Simmel’s Über das Religiöse, individually conceptualized forms of personalist moral theory, and the general shift to phenomenological discourses and the individual in the philosophy of religion. The fundamental rejections of these ideas and these schools of thought in reviews and essays, which are also found in the journal at this time (as in most all German language Catholic cultural journals of the period), are not addressed in this article. The article thus sheds light on an often-forgotten and relatively small minority phenomenon in German Catholic intellectual circles of the Weimar Period, namely the positive embrace of Enlightenment-oriented modern thought. By promoting these ideas at this time, this group made themselves highly vulnerable to disciplinary measures by the Catholic Church. (The journal was put on the Index in 1911.)

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