Value Commitments and the Balanced Life

Utilitas ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
VALERIE TIBERIUS
Keyword(s):  
Personal Values ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
Virtuous Person ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
The Way ◽  
Meaningful Lives

According to critics such as Bernard Williams, traditional ethical theories render it impossible to lead good and meaningful lives because they emphasize moral duty or the promotion of external values at the expense of the personal commitments that make our lives worth living from our own perspective. Responses to this criticism have not addressed the fundamental question about the proper relationship between a person's commitments to moral values and her commitments to non-moral or personal values. In this article, I suggest that we think about this relationship by reflecting on the way that a prudentially virtuous person who has commitments to both moral and non-moral values would regard these commitments. I argue that people with the virtue of balance do have reasons to act in accordance with their moral commitments, but that whether or not these reasons are overriding depends on the type of commitment in question.

The Better Part

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Stephen R. L. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Virtuous Person ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Living Well ◽  
Right Reason ◽  
The Right ◽  
Virtuous Activity ◽  
The Way ◽  
Practice Habits

According to Aristotle, the goal of anyone who is not simply stupid or slavish is to live a worthwhile life. There are, no doubt, people who have no goal at all beyond the moment's pleasure or release from pain. There may be people incapable of reaching any reasoned decision about what to do, and acting on it. But anyone who asks how she should live implicitly agrees that her goal is to live well, to live a life that she can think worth living. That goal, eudaimonia, is something that is sought for its own sake, and for nothing else. Anyone who asks herself how she should live can answer that she should live well. The answer, admittedly, needs further comment. Aristotle went on to suggest that ‘living well’ amounted to living in accordance with virtue, or if there is more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. Eudaimonia, happiness, is virtuous activity over a whole life. To live a worthwhile life we must acquire and practice habits of doing the right thing, for the right reason. Equivalently, we must do what a virtuous person would, and in the way she would, for the sake of to kalon, or beauty.

scholarly journals Philosophy as Synchronic History

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
DANIEL STOLJAR
Keyword(s):  
Causal Explanation ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Philosophical Progress ◽  
The Way

Abstract Bernard Williams argues that philosophy is in some deep way akin to history. This article is a novel exploration and defense of the Williams thesis (as I call it)—though in a way anathema to Williams himself. The key idea is to apply a central moral from what is sometimes called the analytic philosophy of history of the 1960s to the philosophy of philosophy of today, namely, the separation of explanation and laws. I suggest that an account of causal explanation offered by David Lewis may be modified to bring out the way in which this moral applies to philosophy, and so to defend the Williams thesis. I discuss in detail the consequences of the thesis for the issue of philosophical progress and note also several further implications: for the larger context of contemporary metaphilosophy, for the relation of philosophy to other subjects, and for explaining, or explaining away, the belief that success in philosophy requires a field-specific ability or brilliance.

scholarly journals Communion songs not regulated by the typicon in the recent tradition of Serbian church singing

Muzikologija ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 121-152
Author(s):  
Vesna Peno
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Liturgical Texts ◽  
Historical Themes ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

In notated collections of Serbian church hymns from the 19th and 20th century there are, among others, communion songs with texts that were not regulated by the Typicon. These so-called "arbitrary communion songs" have been very popular in the recent tradition of Serbian church chanting. They have been gradually pushing out the hymns that are regulated for singing on concrete days and feasts during the church year. Analysis of possible influences that determined the way texts and the melodies delved into the recent Serbian church chanting follows two possible directions. The first commenced from late-Byzantine singing tradition; more specifically, from a group of songs that although based on liturgical texts, were performed in extra-liturgical occasions. These are calophonic irmoi which were composed by a great number of known late-Byzantine masters of singing. The second direction had its beginning in Russian spiritual music that generated a new melodic genre kant, based on western models. The majority of those compositions have freely written spiritual texts, too, and not part of the liturgy. Kanti were, namely, singing numbers in liturgical dramas - theatrical pieces with Christian historical themes. The majority of arbitrary communion hymns from Serbian collections have texts from the psalms or use texts for irmoi of specific canons. There is only one text that does not belong to the output of church hymnography. In spite of that, the melodies of the analyzed hymns reflect the presence of traditional compositional procedures characteristic of late-Byzantine and Serbian traditions. On either side, they possess atypical musical phrases that relate them to the the kanti. The usage of paraliturgical songs instead of communion hymns is commentated upon from the liturgic aspect also. That song belongs to the central part of the Liturgy and most fundamental during the service of the Orthodox church. Therefore the deviation in Serbian practice from the rules that define its place and role demonstrate the distancing from the tradition, raises a fundamental question: is liturgical meaning being compromised.

scholarly journals Pytanie o sens życia

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-133
Author(s):  
Karol Bujnowski
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Nowadays more often people are asking about the meaning of life. It is a fundamental question that every human being faces. Man is asking whether life is worth living, what to do to make our life meaningful?A human being, among many needs, has the need for discovering the sense of life, the need comes from the very core of human existence as placed in time and connected with the phenomenon of passing away. Discovering the sense of life leads to the experience of happiness, joy, and to inner life lived much more to the full. Showing the meaning of life and helping to find that meaning are very important functions of religion. Due to it, a man is able to live one’s life, ambitions, goals, joyful moments as well as his or her suffering in the light of deeper understanding. Religion is the one that can often bring the richest and deepest answers to the question of the two meanings: the meaning of life and the world.

scholarly journals Zabrana online igara na sreću kao posljedica poreznoga zakonodavstva

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 653-664
Author(s):  
Matteo Cvenček
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Tax Administration ◽  
Legal Certainty ◽  
Complete Control ◽  
Tax Legislation ◽  
Online Business ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
The Way

Moral and moral values are increasingly questioned in today's society when it comes to a multiplicity of vices that are becoming available to a larger number of people. Gambling, as a form of hazardous activity, is reaching every space and every liberal country through digitalization. Internet and online business have made it possible to spread gambling and thus to increase the number of participants in such games. Apart from some basic doubts about the morality of such games, especially regarding young players, there also appears the issue of state interests in monopoly systems ordered by national laws. A policy driven by state interests has paved the way for restricting gambling providers by blocking those providers or blocking the access to the content of certain webpages. The linked ban is debatable at least from the aspect of the constitutionality of the mentioned measure. Despite of this, measures prohibiting access to a certain internet content should be evaluated individually, in accordance with the principle of proportionality and in line with the requirement of legal certainty. This paper therefore addresses the need to introduce such a measure in the Croatian tax legislation with comparative examples of justifications for this measure and also deals with the problem of its possible abuses by the Croatian Tax Administration, thereby subtly introducing the complete control of the content of websites.

scholarly journals What is Right? What is Wrong? and Does the Answer Tell Something about Culture? - an Investigation into Culture and Morality Using the Values Concept

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Christin-Melanie Vauclair
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Personal Values ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Multilevel Regression

<p>Morality, or what is considered right or wrong, varies seemingly across cultures. However, the literature shows that moral psychologists have mainly investigated moral reasoning assuming a universal morality. Cross-cultural psychologists in contrast have widely neglected moral issues such as prescriptive beliefs of what people ought to do in a culture, and have predominantly measured culture through personal values. This thesis attempts to bridge this gap by focusing on the values concept. Four empirical studies were conducted to critically examine values as a measure of culture and their relationship to morality. Chapter one is an introduction into the topics morality, culture and values. Chapter two outlines the conceptual and methodological issues associated with deriving cultural values through the statistical aggregation of individuals' personal values. A value taxonomy is presented in which personal moral values and societal moral values are proposed as alternatives for measuring the cultural context. Following this critique, personal values are examined in two empirical studies in a cross-cultural context scrutinizing the validity of Schwartz' (1994) Culture-level Value Theory. Study 1 is a cross-cultural meta-analysis using the Rokeach Value Survey (Rokeach, 1973) showing that Schwartz' culture-level value structure was replicable with different samples, and a different method for assessing value priorities. Nonetheless, a set of values not included in Schwartz' analysis formed a new value type: Self-fulfilled Connectedness (SFC) which is related to the pursuit of non-material goals and endorsed in countries in which basic needs are fulfilled. Study 2 tested in a multilevel regression model whether Schwartz' cultural values predicted individuals' moral attitudes with data from more than 40 different countries. The findings indicated that the value dimension Autonomy-Embeddedness explained individuals' lenient attitude towards personal-sexual, but not towards dishonest-illegal issues. Study 3 dealt with the fundamental critique raised in chapter two that Schwartz (1994) does not operationalize micro- and macro-level constructs independently when measuring cultural values. To address this empirically, personal moral values and societal moral values were explicitly measured in student samples from eight cultures. Societal moral values showed greater cross-cultural differences than personal moral values. Furthermore, societal moral values at the culture-level conceptually replicated the multilevel findings from Study 2. This suggests that societal moral values are a valid macro-level variable for the measurement of culture. Finally, Study 4 was conducted to elicit implicit moral values. Respondents from four cultures free-listed their associations of a 'moral person'. correspondence analyses revealed that collectivistic-oriented samples mentioned more traditional moral attributes, whereas individualistic samples reported more liberal attributes. Furthermore, accessibility of implicit moral values - matched with the SVS - correlated with explicit ratings of personal moral values from Study 3, providing convergent validity for this kind of values. This multi-method finding corroborated that personal moral values and societal moral values are different concepts. In sum, these studies support the validity of Schwartz' theory and suggest that notions of right and wrong do indeed tell us something about culture, but it depends on (1) the issues studied (personal-sexual issues), and (2) the kind of values measured (societal moral values).</p>

scholarly journals Ethics in Classical and Contemporary Children’s Short Stories

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-192
Author(s):  
Atikah Ruslianti ◽  
Annisaa Syifa Nuramalina
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
The Other ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Diverse Culture ◽  
The Way

Children short stories are one way among other literature studies to educate children about moral values and social life around them. In order to be able to socialize with other people, one of the important moral values that an individual must have is ethics. Most of children short stories, both classical and contemporary, are trying to present ethics as the main theme. This paper explores the way ethics is being conveyed in classical and contemporary children short stories. This paper uses Narrative Inquiry of Qualitative Method. This method is used to explore the background of the stories and authors with diverse culture as it is shown through the stories. There are 6 children short stories being analyzed. Three stories are classical, and the other three are contemporary. This paper also shows the results of comparison of ethic in classical and contemporary children short stories.

Service-Bonded Inquiry: The Road Less Traveled

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Martinek ◽  
Don Hellison
Keyword(s):  
Personal Values ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Community Settings ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Road ◽  
Scholarly Inquiry ◽  
Research Service ◽  
The Way

In this essay, a new approach to doing research in schools and other community settings is described: service-bonded inquiry. This approach allows researchers to expand the boundaries of scholarly inquiry through the integration of service and scholarship. It is not an attempt to replace traditional forms of research; rather, it serves to complement the way researchers have historically conducted research. Service-bonded inquiry is the proverbial bridge between what Hal Lawson (1990) calls information gathering and useful information. The discussion here focuses on describing important assumptions underlying service-bonded inquiry and arguing that personal values and commitment must be assessed before engaging in this type of research. In addition, guideposts for evaluating and doing service-bonded inquiry are provided.

Shariah

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Concise Review ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

In addition to a concise review of the meaning and definition of shariah, the chapter introduces the sources of shariah, including the two main types of revealed and rational sources and their subdivisions. The history of shariah (“the way to the watering place,” or “the path to correct guidance, salvation, and relief”) is occupied with scholastic developments and the embodiment of what became known as fiqh, which consists mainly of the practical rules of Islamic law that regulate the daily lives of Muslims. Shariah is a broad concept that is not confined to legal rules but comprises the totality of guidance that God Most High has revealed to humankind, pertaining to the dogma of Islam, its moral values, and its practical legal rules.

Williams, Bernard Arthur Owen (1929–2003)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Harrison ◽  
Edward Craig
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Ethical Judgment ◽  
Independent Set ◽  
Moral Emotion ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Attribution Of Responsibility ◽  
Scientific Judgment ◽  
The Way

Bernard Williams wrote on the philosophy of mind, especially personal identity, and political philosophy, where his position is staunchly liberal; but the larger and later part of his published work is on ethics. He is hostile to utilitarianism, and also attacks a view of morality associated in particular with Kant: people may only be properly blamed for what they do voluntarily, and what we should do is the same for all of us, and discoverable by reason. By contrast Williams holds that luck has an important role in our evaluation of ourselves and others; in the proper attribution of responsibility the voluntary is less central than the Kantian picture implies. Williams thinks shame a more important moral emotion than blame. Instead of there being an independent set of consistent moral truths, discoverable by reason, how we should live depends on the emotions and desires that we happen to have. These vary between people, and are typically plural and conflicting. Hence for Williams ethical judgment could not describe independent or real values - by contrast with the way in which he thinks that scientific judgment may describe a real independent world.

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