Morality

Author(s):  
Owen Ware

This chapter offers a close analysis of Fichte’s first foundational argument in the System of Ethics, his deduction of the moral law in §§1–3. The discussion begins with Kant’s doctrine of the fact of reason: the idea that our consciousness of the moral law warrants the belief that we are free. While many commentators assume that Fichte rejects this doctrine, there is evidence to show that he sides with Kant in making our consciousness of the moral law a necessary condition for cognizing our freedom. What is novel about Fichte’s argument in §§1–3 of the System of Ethics is that it treats freedom and morality not as two separate thoughts but as different aspects of one and the same thing, which he calls the principle of I-hood (Ichheit) as such.

Author(s):  
Owen Ware

Kant’s arguments for the reality of human freedom and the normativity of the moral law continue to inspire work in contemporary moral philosophy. Many prominent ethicists invoke Kant, directly or indirectly, in their efforts to derive the authority of moral requirements from a more basic conception of action, agency, or rationality. But many commentators have detected a deep rift between the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason, leaving Kant’s project of justification exposed to conflicting assessments and interpretations. In this major re-reading of Kant, Owen Ware defends the controversial view that Kant’s mature writings on ethics share a unified commitment to the moral law’s primacy. Using both close analysis and historical contextualization, Owen Ware overturns a paradigmatic way of reading Kant’s arguments for morality and freedom, situating them within Kant’s critical methodology at large. The result is a novel understanding of Kant that challenges much of what goes under the banner of Kantian arguments for moral normativity today.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris W. Surprenant

After examining the ethical and political writings of Immanuel Kant, one finds an apparent paradox in his philosophy as his perfectionist moral teachings appear to be linked to his anti-perfectionist political theory. Specifically, he writes that the perfection of moral character can only take place for an individual who is inside of civil society, a condition where no laws may legitimately be implemented expressly for the purpose of trying to make individuals moral. Kant believes that living in civil society is a necessary condition for an individual to refine his talents and reason completely, a process required by morality. I believe, however, that the connection between his moral and political theory runs much deeper than simply facilitating the refinement of talents. Kant's moral theory focuses on an individual's cultivation of virtue, but this cultivation cannot be most satisfactorily completed unless that individual is a member of civil society. Put differently, civil society plays a necessary role in cultivating an individual's character so that he is able to act from maxims consistent with the moral law, out of the respect for the law itself. However, because he believes that civic laws primarily intended to encourage moral cultivation cannot be implemented legitimately, it seems curious that this condition should play such a significant role in Kant's moral philosophy. Through this examination of Kant's moral and political theory, it will be shown that Kant's political society establishes a condition necessary for an individual's complete cultivation of virtue, not by implementing laws that make men moral but by weakening the forces of heteronomy, thereby removing barriers to moral action.


Author(s):  
Owen Ware
Keyword(s):  

This chapter offers a close analysis of Fichte’s second foundational argument in the System of Ethics, his deduction of the moral law’s applicability in §§4–13. The discussion begins by clarifying the sense in which Fichte’s first deduction, from §§1–3, was ‘formal and empty’ and so did not yet establish the reality of the moral law. It is here that Fichte introduces his claim that what we call our lower and higher capacities of desire are but mere expressions of a single drive, what he calls our ‘original drive’ (Urtrieb), which becomes divided only in reflection. The aim of this chapter is to show how Fichte’s theory of drives culminates in his theory of our higher capacity of feeling, or what he calls our power of conscience, which completes the second main deduction of the System of Ethics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 44-65
Author(s):  
Fredrik Nilsen

In his major works in ethics, Immanuel Kant (1724—1804) does not pay much attention to the question how humans become moral. The main tasks for Kant in these works are to establish the moral law and discuss its application. However, in his minor works in ethics and pedagogy he draws our attention to the question mentioned and claims that humans first become moral when they get 16 years old. Before we reach this age, our will (Willkür) is able to choose, that means prioritize, between rationality (the moral law) and sensitivity (inclinations), but our will (Wille) lacks the capacity to impose the moral law on ourselves. To evolve in this regard so that our will becomes fully moral and autonomous, we need moral restrictions from other people with more moral experience. The relevant Kantian distinction in this regard is the distinction Kant draws between persons and moral actors in the wake of his formula of the categorical imperative called the formula of humanity. According to this distinction, a person needs to be educated heteronomously in order to reach the level of moral actor and become autonomous. Constraint is therefore a necessary condition for self-constraint.


1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Montmerle

AbstractFor life to develop, planets are a necessary condition. Likewise, for planets to form, stars must be surrounded by circumstellar disks, at least some time during their pre-main sequence evolution. Much progress has been made recently in the study of young solar-like stars. In the optical domain, these stars are known as «T Tauri stars». A significant number show IR excess, and other phenomena indirectly suggesting the presence of circumstellar disks. The current wisdom is that there is an evolutionary sequence from protostars to T Tauri stars. This sequence is characterized by the initial presence of disks, with lifetimes ~ 1-10 Myr after the intial collapse of a dense envelope having given birth to a star. While they are present, about 30% of the disks have masses larger than the minimum solar nebula. Their disappearance may correspond to the growth of dust grains, followed by planetesimal and planet formation, but this is not yet demonstrated.


Author(s):  
G.D. Danilatos

The environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) has evolved as the natural extension of the scanning electron microscope (SEM), both historically and technologically. ESEM allows the introduction of a gaseous environment in the specimen chamber, whereas SEM operates in vacuum. One of the detection systems in ESEM, namely, the gaseous detection device (GDD) is based on the presence of gas as a detection medium. This might be interpreted as a necessary condition for the ESEM to remain operational and, hence, one might have to change instruments for operation at low or high vacuum. Initially, we may maintain the presence of a conventional secondary electron (E-T) detector in a "stand-by" position to switch on when the vacuum becomes satisfactory for its operation. However, the "rough" or "low vacuum" range of pressure may still be considered as inaccessible by both the GDD and the E-T detector, because the former has presumably very small gain and the latter still breaks down.


1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 424-425
Author(s):  
Laurence D. Smith
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
E. N. Shiryaeva ◽  
M. A. Polyakov ◽  
D. V. Terent'ev

Complexity of modern metallurgical plants, presence of great number of horizontal and vertical interactions between their various structural subdivisions makes it necessary to apply a systems analysis to elaborate effective measures for stable development of a plant operation. Among such measures, digitalization of a plant is widespread at present. To implement the digitalization it is necessary to have clear vision about links at all the levels of the technological system of a plant. A terminology quoted, accepted in the existing regulatory documents for defining of conceptions, comprising the technological system. It was shown, that the following four hierarchical levels of technological systems are distinguished: technological systems of operations, technological systems of processes, technological systems of production subdivisions and technological systems of plants. A hierarchical scheme of technological systems of hot-rolled sheet production at an integrated steel plant presented. Existing horizontal and vertical links between the basic plant’s shops shown. Peculiarities of flows of material, energy and information at the operation “rolling” of the technological system “hot rolling of a steel sheet” considered. As a technical system of the technological process of the hot rolling, the hot rolling mill was chosen. A structural diagram of the hot rolling mill was elaborated, the mill being consisted of reheating furnaces, roughing and finishing stand groups, with an intermediate roll-table between them, and down-coilers section. Since the rolling stands are the basic structural elements of the hot rolling mill, structural diagrams of a roughing and a finishing stands were elaborated. Results of the systems analysis of the technological and technical systems, hierarchically linked in the process of steel sheet hot rolling, can be applied for perfection of organization structure of the whole plant, as well as for elaboration mathematical models of a system separate elements functioning, which is a necessary condition for a plant digitalization.


Author(s):  
B. A. Sivak ◽  
A. V. Protasov ◽  
L. A. Smirnov

The removal of slag from melt surface of hot metal and steel ladles is a necessary condition to provide a deep desulphurization and dephosphorization of hot metal and steel in the process of their processing. A review of methods of slag skimming presented, mainly based on slag mechanical shoveling and its removal out of ladles by vacuum sucking. It was shown, that manipulators design for the slag skimming working instrument moving depends on the production scale, mass of the processed heats, amount and properties of the slag to be removed, production process intensity and ecological requirements. Peculiarities of designs and technical parameters of machines for slag skimming presented, designed by Irkutsk plant of heavy machinery, Scientific and Production Enterprise n.a. M.I. Platov, VNIIMETMASH, Kuznetsk and Novolipetsk steel plants. Technological methods of control of slag composition and physical properties considered, first of all of viscosity and fluidity, which have significant effect on selection of a method of slag skimming. Advantages and drawbacks of actions, aimed at more complete slag removal from metal surface by a scraper noted including bath blowing off by an inert gas, liquid slag tapping into am intermediate settling tank following its removal into a slag bowl. In case of satisfactory fluidity it is possible to slag removal by vacuum sucking, which at the same time promoted the melt degassing. Work done in this area abroad noted. Methods of vacuum slag removal developed in the USA and Japan described.


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