Does Humanity Share a Common Moral Faculty?

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Normative Theory ◽  
Moral Truth ◽  
Moral Sentiment ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Ethical Naturalism ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Moral Conception ◽  
History Of ◽  
Moral Faculty

AbstractThe history of ethics contains many moral faculty theories, which usually are sorted by their metaphysics. The usual suspects include moral rationalism (Richard Price, Kant), moral sentiment theory (Hutcheson, Hume, Smith) and the varieties of ethical naturalism. Moral faculty theories differ importantly upon yet another dimension, on how widely it is distributed. Some, the Platonic elitists (Plato, J.S. Mill, R.M. Hare), suppose that moral truth can be discerned only by philosophical argument. Hence, they ascribe a revisionary task to normative theory, that of correcting nonphilosophers' moral errors. Others, the communalists (Aquinas, Hume, W.D. Ross), hold that the moral faculty is universally distributed. Hence, they hold that normative theory's task is not to revise, but rather to discern and explain the shared moral conception that we all apply in our ordinary moral lives. I here offer arguments to support commonalism.

Spinoza’s Ethical Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Philosophical Naturalism ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Virtuous Character ◽  
History Of ◽  
Good And Evil

This chapter analyzes Spinoza’s ethical theory in the context of his philosophical naturalism, his doctrine that the actual essence of each thing is its striving for self-preservation (conatus), and his psychology of the emotions as it concerns both “bondage to the passions” and the active emotions such as intellectual joy. It explains how Spinoza’s ethical precepts are expressed chiefly through demonstrated propositions about good and evil, virtue, the guidance of reason, and “the free man.” Particular attention is given to questions about (1) the meaning of ethical language, (2) the nature of the good, (3) the practicality of reason, (4) the role of virtuous character, (5) the requirements for freedom and moral responsibility (especially in light of his necessitarianism), and (6) the possibility and moral significance of altruism. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the significance of Spinoza’s ethical theory and its place in the history of ethics.

Presbyterians and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 525-537
Author(s):  
Mark Douglas
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Awakening ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Second Great Awakening ◽  
World War ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of

The history of ethics in the Presbyterian Church has been shaped by the theological commitments of Reformed theology, the church’s ecumenical and interreligious encounters, its interactions with the wider cultures in which it functions, and its global scope. Consequently, Presbyterian ethics have become increasingly diverse, culturally diffused, ecumenically directed, and frequently divisive. That said, its history can helpfully be divided into three lengthy periods. In the first (roughly from the church’s origins in 1559 to the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century), theology, ethics, and politics are so interwound that distinguishing one from the others is difficult. In the second (roughly from the Second Great Awakening to the end of World War II), moral concerns emerge as forces that drive the church’s theology and polity. And in the third (for which proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 might be a heuristically helpful starting point), ethics increasingly functions in ways that are only loosely tethered to either Reformed theology or polity. The strength of the church’s social witness, the consistency of its global engagements, and the failings of its internecine strife are all evident during its five-hundred-year history.

scholarly journals FRANTIŠEK WEYR (1879-1951). ZAPOMNIANY NORMATYWISTA

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Bartosz Lewandowski
Keyword(s):  
Normative Theory ◽  
Law School ◽  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Representative ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
Second World

FRANTIŠEK WEYR (1879-1951): A FORGOTTEN NORMATIVIST Summary František Weyr (1879-1951) was one of the most outstanding adherents of the normative theory of legal science during the inter-war period. His scholarly activity was focused on the basic issues important for normativism, on which he embarked shortly before Hans Kelsen’s, and with no influence from Kelsen (Weyr published his earliest book in 1908). Weyr was one of the founders and the main representative of the Czechoslovak Neo-Kantian Law School, which was composed of his former students, members of the Faculty of Law at the Tomáš Masaryk University in Brno. Members of the Czechoslovak Neo-Kantian Law School engaged in numerous polemics on key normativist issues (e.g. the nature of legal norms). F. Weyr’s work in the philosophy of law made a salient contribution to the turbulent history of Czechoslovakia, exerting an influence from the auspicious years of the independent Second Republic (1918-1938), through the period of the Czech and Moravian Protectorate under Nazi German occupation during the Second World War, to the postwar period under the Communist regime and its miserable demise in 1990. Weyr is appreciated in Czech scholarship for his achievements in the theory of law. Although he was one of the key figures associated with normativism, often compared with his colleague H. Kelsen, his work in scholarship is not well known in the Polish theory of law.

scholarly journals PODE-SE FAZER UM RELATO PLAUSÍVEL DA HISTÓRIA DA ÉTICA? UMA ALTERNATIVA A AFTER VIRTUE DE MACINTYRE

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (125) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Vittorio Hösle
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Alasdair Macintyre ◽  
Intergenerational Justice ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
Important Intermediate ◽  
Value Of Nature

O artigo apresenta uma filosofia da história da Ética que é uma alternativa ao famoso relato de Alasdair MacIntyre em After Virtue. Ainda que a querela entre visões moralistas e imoralistas ocorra diversas vezes na história da filosofia, desde os sofistas até Nietzsche, há também um lento progresso em direção ao universalismo, como foi articulado na sua forma mais elaborada por Kant. Abelardo e Tomás de Aquino são interpretados como as figuras intermediárias mais importantes entre Aristóteles e Kant, mas já o Estoicismo prepara ideias básicas kantianas. O principal desafio da Ética em nosso tempo é a expansão do universalismo para uma teoria da justiça intergeneracional e para um explicação do valor da natureza.Abstract: The essay presents a philosophy of the history of ethics that is an alternative to Alasdair MacIntyre’s famous account in After Virtue. While the quarrel between moralist and immoralist views occurs several times in the history of philosophy, from the sophists to Nietzsche, there is also a slow progress toward universalism, as it was articulated in its most elaborate form by Kant. Abelard and Aquinas are interpreted as the most important intermediate figure between Aristotle and Kant, but already Stoicism prepares basic Kantian ideas. The main challenge of the ethics of our time is the expansion of universalism to a theory of intergenerational justice and an account of the value of nature.

Talking Up Country: Language, Natureculture and Interculture in Australian Environmental Education Research

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Whitehouse
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Human Settlement ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Interface ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Made In

AbstractAustralia is an old continent with an immensely long history of human settlement. The argument made in this paper is that Australia is, and has always been, a natureculture. Just as English was introduced as the dominant language of education with European colonisation, so arrived an ontological premise that linguistically divides a categorised nature from culture and human from “the” environment. Drawing on published work from the Australian tropics, this paper employs a socionature approach to make a philosophical argument for a more nuanced understanding of language, the cultural interface and contemporary moves towards interculture in Australian environmental education practice.

Holiness and Ethics

2018 ◽  
pp. 89-153
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Ethical Naturalism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter explores the connection between holiness and ethics or between holiness and goodness. Drawing on a theory of holiness in Judaism, it considers how holiness relates to other values, including moral ones, and whether holiness is more primordial or primitive than ethics. The discussion is anchored on two texts: the first from the Book of Leviticus, and the second from the modern Jewish thinker, Abraham Joshua Heschel. The chapter argues that holiness and morality are equally primordial, equally original to the human condition, and goes on to propose a natural history of holiness in which the human experiences of love and awe, of goodness and holiness arise together against man's evolutionary background as a social primate. It also examines the concepts of primordial morality, natural morality, ethical naturalism, and moral realism before concluding with an analysis of intuition in relation to the good, the right, and the holy.

Ethics Courses Teaching Linkage to Quality Management Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 232-245
Author(s):  
Damini Saini ◽  
Sunita Singh Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Ethics Education ◽  
Management Education ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Ethical Education ◽  
Ethics Course ◽  
History Of ◽  
Management Institutions ◽  
Ethics Courses

Almost every management institution in India has an ethics course in their curriculum that is focused upon inculcating the value set in an individual. To understand the role of ethical education in accelerating the quality of management education, this chapter provides a discussion of implications of the questions of quality, dilemma, and pedagogy of ethical training. In the introduction, the authors emphasize on the reasons of focusing upon the ethical education, then give a brief history of ethics education in Indian management institutions. In order to show the significance, authors also show the place of ethics course in top 10 business institutions in India. Further, the authors describe the main focus of the chapter that is the contribution of ethics in management education.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document