An inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue: In two treatises, I. Concerning beauty, order, harmony, design, II. Concerning moral good and evil (5th ed. corrected).

1753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Hutcheson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Good ◽  
Good And Evil

scholarly journals God and the Playpen: On the Feasibility of Morally Better Worlds

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 266
Author(s):  
Cheryl K. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Actual World ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Moral Goodness ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
Horrendous Evil ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Free Will Defense ◽  
Better Than

According to the free will defense, God cannot create a world with free creatures, and hence a world with moral goodness, without allowing for the possibility of evil. David Lewis points out that any free will defense must address the “playpen problem”: why didn’t God allow creatures the freedom required for moral goodness, while intervening to ensure that all evil-doing is victimless? More recently, James Sterba has revived the playpen problem by arguing that an omnipotent and benevolent God would have intervened to prevent significant and especially horrendous evil. I argue that it is possible, at least, that such divine intervention would have backfired, and that any attempt to create a world that is morally better than this one would have resulted in a world that is morally worse. I conclude that the atheologian should instead attack the free will defense at its roots: either by denying that the predetermination of our actions is incompatible with our freely per-forming them, or by denying that the actual world—a world with both moral good and evil—is more valuable than a world without any freedom at all.

scholarly journals Foul Play in Sport as a Phenomenon Inconsistent with the Rules, yet Acceptable and Desirable

2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Kosiewicz
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Athletic Activity ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
Printed Materials ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Rules Of The Game

Foul Play in Sport as a Phenomenon Inconsistent with the Rules, yet Acceptable and DesirableAuthor considers assumptions related to foul play in sport as a phenomenon, that affect the body, psyche, or relationships - various social involvements, conditionings, and determinants of those involved with that particular form of athletic activity. This includes fouls committed on and off the field, as well as those not even related to a particular game. Our considerations include fouls of a verbal or acoustic nature; fouls in the form of printed materials; those in the form of visual commentary in films, TV shows, Internet appearances, whether in feature films, dramatized documentaries, documentaries or reports presented in a different publications, festivals, exhibitions, during which co-participants, adversaries or competitors make comments on past or future events during or beyond the competition.Fouls in sport, particularly those committed by athletes during competition, will always be inconsistent with the accepted rules of the game, that is, with the official regulations. Fouls will also always influence - in more or less annoying, depressing, painful or even tragic ways - the fate and the health of athletes.No logical - conditional, cause and effect - connection exists between a foul and the rules. Neither the need for nor praise of foul play can stem from the regulations. Yet people directly associated with the sport tolerate it because there is a widespread, quiet acquiescence of such play. Foul play is strongly opposed by supporters of the fair play principle, by those who do not regard sports competition as a phenomenon that can be considered independently beyond moral good and evil.Foul play is seen also as a desirable phenomenon, when inter alia, regardless of the various penalties imposed on players and team, it helps - in the final balance of losses and benefits - to achieve the planned success. Moreover, it is worth adding that, for instance, the so-called "good foul" in basketball enables one to stop the game clock, the so-called pure-play time of the referee. This creates the possibility of obtaining at least one more point (for a possible 3-point shot from a distance) than the team that executes its two one-point penalty shots granted for the offense (that is, "good foul").Foul play may also enhance the course of the sports spectacle, and encourage spectators to cheer more frequently. This is particularly important when professional athletic contests are treated as a form of business. The dramatization of foul play as a creation of "game" within a game can also be an additional attraction of the competition; foul play might be used as sophisticated and spectacular trickery, that dismays and hurts in its pragmatic-aesthetic construction, both the referee and the opponent.Foul play in sports has so many forms and will probably never lose its popular and sometimes spectacular character. Knowing that, everything should be done to protect players from bothersome health, interpersonal, and cultural disablements resulting from foul play.

scholarly journals The Ethical and Legal Context of Justifying Anti-Doping Attitudes

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Kosiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Legal Context ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Moral Demands

Abstract The reflections presented in the paper are not normative (in general, it can be said, that they do not create moral values and demands). The presented reflections particularly stress the sense, essence, meaning, and identity of sport in the context of moral demands. A disquisition pointing out that sports and sport-related doping can be situated beyond the moral good and evil must be considered precisely as metaethical, and leads in a consciously controversial way to fully defining the identity of sport in general, as well as the identity of particular sports disciplines. These reflections also refer to the issue concerning the identity of sports philosophy, i.e. general deliberations and specific issues concerning, for example, the factual and cognitive status of normative ethics in sport. It is impossible to overestimate the role and meaning of metaethical reflection in the context of substantiating moral demands in sports as well as in the context of practical results of expectations. This metaethical reflection not only extends self-knowledge, but also contributes to the metaphilosophy of sports. The degree of the development of self-knowledge - both the metaethics of sports and the metaphilosophy of sports - is also a very important declaration, and a sign of general maturity of the philosophy of sports (Kosiewicz 2008/2009, pp. 5-38)

scholarly journals Theodicy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (29) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Claudio Tugnoli
Keyword(s):  
Human Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
National Community ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Will ◽  
Good And Evil

Throughout all of Rousseau’s works there is tension between argumentation and feeling, speculation and intuition, reason and conscience. Reason binds men when they think correctly, but divides them and opposes one to the other when they place it at the service of self-interest, of ambition and of the will to prevail. Conversely, the universality of conscience is immediate and transparent: it transmits the truth of the existence of God, of the freedom of men, of the distinction between good and evil, as well as of the universal principles that are at the roots of human action and of the virtues honoured by all human societies, despite the differences of particular legislations. Mankind possesses an innate and intuitive conscience of the fundamental principles by which its conduct must be inspired. Were we to consider human actions only according to the criterion of physical need, of causality and of movement, vices and virtues would disappear and terms like morality and honesty would have no meaning. But each one of us perceives from within that this is not the case. We feel that moral good and evil are more real than anything else, without any need whatsoever to prove it. To obey the conscience one has of good and of evil without human mediation means to reject the dogmatic formalism of religions as well as the vanity of philosophical disputes. Every human being, however, is inserted into a national community. What should the state’s attitude be vis-à-vis religion? Rousseau indicates two paths. The first consists in establishing a purely civil religion that admits only those dogmas that are truly useful to society. Rousseau highlights the contradiction of a Christian religion that, although it is the religion of peace par excellence, fuels continuing bloody clashes among men due to a dogmatic theology that is totally alien to the essence of the Gospel and extremely hazardous for the life of the State. The second path consists in allowing Christianity to retain its authentic spirit, its freedom from any material constraint, without any obligations other than those of individual conscience. The Christian religion has such a pure and noble moral that it cannot but benefit the State, as long as one does not expect to make it part of the constitution.

scholarly journals The Ethical Context of Justifying Anti-Doping Attitudes: Critical Reflections

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Kosiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Ethical Context ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Moral Demands ◽  
Critical Reflections

The Ethical Context of Justifying Anti-Doping Attitudes: Critical ReflectionsThe reflections presented in the paper are not normative (in general, it can be said, that they do not create moral values and demands). The presented reflections particularly stress the sense, essence, meaning, and identity of sport in the context of moral demands. A disquisition pointing out that sports and sport-related doping can be situated beyond the moral good and evil must be considered precisely as metaethical, and leads in a consciously controversial way to fully defining the identity of sport in general, as well as the identity of particular sports disciplines.These reflections also refer to the issue concerning the identity of sports philosophy, i.e. general deliberations and specific issues concerning, for example, the factual and cognitive status of normative ethics in sport.It is impossible to overestimate the role and meaning of metaethical reflection in the context of substantiating moral demands in sports as well as in the context of practical results of expectations. This metaethical reflection not only extends self-knowledge, but also contributes to the metaphilosophy of sports. The degree of the development of self-knowledge – both the metaethics of sports and the metaphilosophy of sports – is also a very important declaration, and a sign of general maturity of the philosophy of sports (Kosiewicz 2008/2009, pp. 5-38).

A snake who eats the devil’s tail: The recursivity of good and evil in the security state

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 468-486
Author(s):  
Natalie D Baker ◽  
Nathan Jones
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Western World ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Us ◽  
Drug Cartels ◽  
Mexican Drug Cartels ◽  
Simultaneous Representation ◽  
Good And Evil

The Islamic State and Mexican drug ‘cartels’ have been positioned as extreme menaces to the Western world by media and state actors despite their inability to pose existential threats to the US. These groups deftly facilitate such representations through barbaric violence which security and information sharing apparatuses uptake and amplify. The ‘good’ neoliberal security state combats and inflates these ‘evil’ threats which, in turn, empowers purveyors of security in a deregulated environment. The authors interrogate this problem through the lens of negative utopias presented in speculative fiction to understand the implications for state and society. Projected representations of evil as an existential threat present a conflicted vision of the future manipulated by political and media actors with dire consequences for democratic ideals. National security relies on a never-ending cast of foreign threats that legitimize counter-terror actions in the name of moral good. Security institutions persist primarily through the simultaneous representation of a never-ending battle of good and evil. They stand to gain from the existence of extremely violent groups, without legitimate progress towards their eradication. They also bring fantasy into reality through the recursive enactment of good versus evil.

Of moral good and evil.

2009 ◽  
pp. 7-32
Author(s):  
William Wollaston
Keyword(s):  
Moral Good ◽  
Good And Evil

Plantinga's version of the free-will argument: the good and evil that free beings do

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
KENNETH EINAR HIMMA
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Logical Problem ◽  
The World ◽  
Evidential Problem Of Evil ◽  
Good And Evil

AbstractAccording to Plantinga's version of the free-will argument (FWA), the existence of free beings in the world who, on the whole, do more good than evil is the greater moral good that cannot be secured by even an omnipotent God without allowing some evil and thereby shows the logical compatibility of God with evil. In this essay, I argue that there are good empirical and moral reasons, from the standpoint of one plausible conception of Christian ethics, to doubt that Plantinga's version of the FWA succeeds as a theodicy. In particular, I argue that, given this understanding of Christian ethics, it seems reasonable to think it false that free beings are doing more good than evil in the world. While there are surely possible worlds in which free beings do more good than evil, this material world seems clearly not one of those. Thus, while Plantinga's version might succeed as a defence against the logical problem of evil, it will neither rebut the evidential problem of evil nor, without more, ground a successful theodicy that reconciles God's existence with the evil that occurs in this world.

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