Learning from Evil

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Jeske
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Moral Deliberation ◽  
Moral Self

The actions of Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder, and Edward Coles, emancipator of slaves, pose critical questions about how people justify their complicity in evil practices. In this introductory chapter, the author lays out how she will examine four significant impediments to good moral deliberation: cultural norms and pressures, the complexity of consequences, emotions, and self-deception. She explains how she will illuminate the errors of bad people and show how they mirror errors that we ourselves commonly make. Thus, the moral philosophy presented here is an important tool in identifying such errors and can assist in fulfilling our duties of due care in moral deliberation, moral self-scrutiny, and the development of moral virtue. The author previews the case studies of bad people, such as Nazis and slaveholders, that she cites in later chapters, and she shows how the studies can act as extended thought experiments about the nature of moral reasoning and of effective moral education.

The Evil Within

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Jeske
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Serial Killer ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Moral Deliberation ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Death Camp

Thomas Jefferson and Edward Coles were men of similar background, but the former remained a slaveholder while the latter emancipated his slaves. Examining the ways in which people such as Jefferson, who perform wrong and even evil actions, attempt to justify those actions both to others and to themselves illuminates the mistakes that we ourselves make in moral reasoning. The study of moral philosophy can help us to identify and correct for such mistakes. In applying the tools of moral philosophy to case studies of Nazi death camp commandants, American slaveholders, and a psychopathic serial killer, the author demonstrates how we can become better moral deliberators, thereby fulfilling our duties of due care in moral deliberation, moral self-scrutiny, and the development of moral virtue. These case studies serve as extended real-life thought experiments of moral deliberation gone wrong, and can show us how four impediments to effective moral deliberation—cultural norms and pressures, the complexity of the consequences of our actions, emotions, and self-deception—can be identified and overcome by the study and use of moral philosophy. Thus, the study of moral philosophy ought to be incorporated into moral education so that its tools become common currency in moral deliberation, discussion, and debate.

The Moral of Mr. Jefferson’s Story

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Jeske
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Moral Action ◽  
Moral Deliberation ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Cultural Pressures

In examining the case of Thomas Jefferson, the author shows how the impediments to good moral deliberation—cultural pressures and norms, the complexity of consequences, emotions, and self-deception—played a role in his thinking about slavery. The chapter also shows how these impediments play a role in our own thinking about our treatment of nonhuman animals and how the tools of moral philosophy can serve as a way of dealing with those impediments. We have to learn how to balance our own interests against those of others, and how to balance the interests of loved ones against the interests of strangers. We cannot leave moral action to the mercy of conscience, if we mean by conscience whatever we happen to think is the right thing to do. Employing the tools of moral philosophy in moral education can help us to raise good moral deliberators and, hopefully, good moral agents.

scholarly journals Francis Hutcheson on Shame

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-105
Author(s):  
Andrey V. Prokofyev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Moral Sense ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Francis Hutcheson ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Bernard Mandeville

The paper analyzes the conception of shame of the British sentimentalist Francis Hutcheson. It rests on the understanding of moral virtue as a representation of benevolence and the iden­tification of shame with the misery from the unfavorable opinions of others. For Hutcheson, shame complements honour as a second part of the particular human capacity that linked to the moral sense. In ‘An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue’, Hutch­eson is arguing with Bernard Mandeville about the role of shame and honour in the genesis of morality. He tries to show that the general approval of benevolence and the love of public good cannot be born out of self-love and a sensitivity to public opinion. He uses three argu­ments: a) shame is an immediate evil, b) shame is inseparable from the moral sense, b) their link is independent from public opinion. In addition, Hutcheson demonstrates that the sense of honour and shame can deviate from the moral sense in par­ticular instances via some asso­ciations. Hutcheson’ attitude to these deviations is uncertain and ambivalent. In ‘A System of Moral Philosophy’, honour and shame accompany not only the moral sense but also the sense of decency and dignity. This treatise also contains a brief polemics with Aristotle on the role of emotions generated by opinions of others in the pro­cess of moral self-improve­ment. Hutcheson’s conception of shame is a step in the develop­ment of socialized interpreta­tion of this emotion. Theoretically, it is interesting as an attempt to analyze origins of the particular lists of subjects of shame.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subramanian Rangan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Market Power ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Paradigm ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Great Output

Our quest for prosperity has produced great output (i.e. performance) but not always great outcomes (i.e. progress). Despite mounting regulation when it comes to fairness, well-being, and the scope of our humanity, the modern economic system still leaves much to be desired. If practice is to evolve substantively and systematically, then we must help evolve an economic paradigm where mutuality is more systematically complemented by morality. The bases of this morality must rest, beyond the sympathetic sentiments envisaged by Adam Smith, on an expanded and intentional moral reasoning. Moral philosophy has a natural role in informing and influencing such a turn in our thinking, especially when education is the preferred vehicle of transformation. Indeed, rather than just regulate market power we must also better educate market power.

scholarly journals The Moral Philosophy of Maria Montessori

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
PATRICK FRIERSON
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Moral Concepts ◽  
Maria Montessori ◽  
Individual Character ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Shared Agency

Abstract This paper lays out the moral theory of philosopher and educator Maria Montessori (1870–1952). Based on a moral epistemology wherein moral concepts are grounded in a well-cultivated moral sense, Montessori develops a threefold account of moral life. She starts with an account of character as an ideal of individual self-perfection through concentrated attention on effortful work. She shows how respect for others grows from and supplements individual character, and she further develops a notion of social solidarity that goes beyond cooperation toward shared agency. Partly because she attends to children's ethical lives, Montessori highlights how character, respect, and solidarity all appear first as prereflective, embodied orientations of agency. Full moral virtue takes up prereflective orientations reflectively and extends them through moral concepts. Overall, Montessori's ethic improves on features similar to some in Nietzschean, Kantian, Hegelian, or Aristotelian ethical theories while situating these within a developmental and perfectionist ethics.

scholarly journals A categorical analysis of the «personality self-determination» concept in the context of the problem of students’ orientation towards moral self-determination

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-273
Author(s):  
Oksana Konstantinovna Pozdnyakova
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Moral Choice ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Categorical Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level Of Analysis

The paper raises the problem of students orientation towards moral self-determination as one of the directions of moral education of students. The necessity of carrying out a categorical analysis of the personality self-determination concept to determine the content and methods of orientation of students towards moral self-determination is substantiated. Personality self-determination is considered at the philosophical, psychological and pedagogical levels of analysis. At the philosophical level of analysis, the essence of the personality self-determination phenomenon and the concept adequate to it is revealed; it consists in a persons choice of certain actions and deeds in a given situation; shows the role of moral choice in the self-determination of the individual. At the psychological level of analysis, the author substantiates the relationship between the self-determination of the individual and the system of his/her relations (to the surrounding reality, other people and himself/herself), which determine the content of the personalitys position. At the pedagogical level of analysis, the self-determination of a person is associated with his/her choice of values, the source of which is his/her needs. The paper argues that the self-determination of a person is both a process and a result of a persons choice of his/her own position, there is a choice of relations that form the content of a position, there is a choice of values, the focus on which constitutes the value orientations of a person, which become the core of self-determination. The author also has determined some practical pedagogical tasks, the solution of which is aimed at creating conditions for the orientation of students towards moral self-determination: the task of students moral principles development, which will ensure their choice of their position, goals and means of self-realization in life; the task of familiarizing students with the value of good, which is the essence of their ethical attitude to the world, to people and to themselves; the task of developing students ability to substantiate the foundations of moral choice and its principles to reflection.

scholarly journals A Deeper Look at Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: An Integrative Ethical Decision-Making Framework to Explain Moral Pluralism

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimin Rhim ◽  
Ji-Hyun Lee ◽  
Mo Chen ◽  
Angelica Lim
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
Ethical Behavioral Intentions

The autonomous vehicle (AV) is one of the first commercialized AI-embedded robots to make autonomous decisions. Despite technological advancements, unavoidable AV accidents that result in life-and-death consequences cannot be completely eliminated. The emerging social concern of how an AV should make ethical decisions during unavoidable accidents is referred to as the moral dilemma of AV, which has promoted heated discussions among various stakeholders. However, there are research gaps in explainable AV ethical decision-making processes that predict how AVs’ moral behaviors are made that are acceptable from the AV users’ perspectives. This study addresses the key question: What factors affect ethical behavioral intentions in the AV moral dilemma? To answer this question, this study draws theories from multidisciplinary research fields to propose the “Integrative ethical decision-making framework for the AV moral dilemma.” The framework includes four interdependent ethical decision-making stages: AV moral dilemma issue framing, intuitive moral reasoning, rational moral reasoning, and ethical behavioral intention making. Further, the framework includes variables (e.g., perceived moral intensity, individual factors, and personal moral philosophies) that influence the ethical decision-making process. For instance, the framework explains that AV users from Eastern cultures will tend to endorse a situationist ethics position (high idealism and high relativism), which views that ethical decisions are relative to context, compared to AV users from Western cultures. This proposition is derived from the link between individual factors and personal moral philosophy. Moreover, the framework proposes a dual-process theory, which explains that both intuitive and rational moral reasoning are integral processes of ethical decision-making during the AV moral dilemma. Further, this framework describes that ethical behavioral intentions that lead to decisions in the AV moral dilemma are not fixed, but are based on how an individual perceives the seriousness of the situation, which is shaped by their personal moral philosophy. This framework provides a step-by-step explanation of how pluralistic ethical decision-making occurs, reducing the abstractness of AV moral reasoning processes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document