Cultivating Rational Thought (Iliad 9)

Enraged ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Katz Anhalt
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Logical Reasoning ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Rational Thought

This chapter examines how the Iliad promotes rational thought and continuously evokes the audience's capacity for critical moral judgment. It explains how the Iliad prompts the audience to consider the costs of Achilles' rage and the irrationality of his desire to be honored by the very people he is failing to protect. As Achilles' rage pursues its destructive path, the Iliad overtly calls attention to the capacity of stories to develop the audience's aptitude for logic and critical thought. Numerous stories throughout the epic encourage logical reasoning and critical judgment by offering models to emulate or avoid. The chapter also discusses Achilles' conviction that success in warfare is the highest form of human achievement and worthy of the highest honor.

Mind, Miracle, and Nature

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Michael L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Logical Reasoning ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Philosophical Naturalism ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Reasoning Process ◽  
Rational Thought

Lewis as a theist (and Christian theist) was the sworn opponent of philosophical naturalism and materialism as worldviews. In his book Miracles, Lewis launches a philosophical attack on naturalism in a special way: he attacks its assumption that physical or material nature is all there is and runs by unbroken laws. He uses the technical Humean definition that a “miracle” would then be a “violation of the laws of nature” and goes on to show that rational thought (which must be free to decide on truth and not determined by physical processes to believe what it believes) is technically a miracle. Probably Lewis’s most important contribution to the field of philosophy is what we call his “argument from reason,” which maintains that naturalism cannot explain the logical reasoning process and that the very existence of this process strongly points to theism. We discuss the Lewis-Anscombe debate over the relation of naturalism and human reason, which spurred Lewis to revise his earlier argument. Prior to this debate, Lewis charged naturalists with committing a self-contradiction by claiming to hold his or her position by reasoning because naturalism implies that all events (including thoughts) are determined by law rather than freedom to discern logic. The Anscombe encounter led Lewis to say instead that there is a “cardinal difficulty,” which the naturalist cannot overcome.

The End of Building: Zionism and the Politics of the Concrete

2002 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyal Chowers
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Practical Skills ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Material World ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Democratic Polity ◽  
Different Levels

The article reflects on the place of building (both as an activity and as an object) in modern, organic nationalism. In particular, it studies the role of building in the movement that epitomizes the Promethean aspect of modernity—Zionism. In this Jewish national movement metaphors ofbuilding are used very often to connote belonging on three different levels: in the material world produced by human beings, in a historically meaningful and humanized space, and in a community of constructors that willfully reshapes both space and matter. But by conceptualizing their collective project as a building, and by envisioning themselves as builders, many Zionists espoused a problematic understanding of democratic politics: the practical skills required by builders do not foster the critical thought, independence, and moral judgment required of the citizen, and the nonverbal solidarity among builders is essentially different from the solidarity required by a plurality of citizens. In other words, the ethos of builders that was essential for establishing a commonwealth from scratch is fundamentally at odds with the ethos required from an ongoing, democratic polity.

What sentimentalists should say about emotion

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlie Kurth
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Moral Cognition ◽  
Multilevel Structure

Abstract Recent work by emotion researchers indicates that emotions have a multilevel structure. Sophisticated sentimentalists should take note of this work – for it better enables them to defend a substantive role for emotion in moral cognition. Contra May's rationalist criticisms, emotions are not only able to carry morally relevant information, but can also substantially influence moral judgment and reasoning.

Commentaries and Rejoinder on

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Gong ◽  
Douglas L. Medin ◽  
Tal Eyal ◽  
Nira Liberman ◽  
Yaacov Trope ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Moral Cognition ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Moral Condemnation ◽  
Construal Levels

In the hope to resolve the two sets of opposing results concerning the effects of psychological distance and construal levels on moral judgment, Žeželj and Jokić (2014) conducted a series of four direct replications, which yielded divergent patterns of results. In our commentary, we first revisit the consistent findings that lower-level construals induced by How/Why manipulation lead to harsher moral condemnation than higher-level construals. We then speculate on the puzzling patterns of results regarding the role of temporal distance in shaping moral judgment. And we conclude by discussing the complexity of morality and propose that it may be important to incorporate cultural systems into the study of moral cognition.

Replication of Experiments Evaluating Impact of Psychological Distance on Moral Judgment

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris L. Žeželj ◽  
Biljana R. Jokić
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Construal Level ◽  
Systematic Effect ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Opposite Conclusion ◽  
Moral Transgressions ◽  
Replication Of Experiments

Eyal, Liberman, and Trope (2008) established that people judged moral transgressions more harshly and virtuous acts more positively when the acts were psychologically distant than close. In a series of conceptual and direct replications, Gong and Medin (2012) came to the opposite conclusion. Attempting to resolve these inconsistencies, we conducted four high-powered replication studies in which we varied temporal distance (Studies 1 and 3), social distance (Study 2) or construal level (Study 4), and registered their impact on moral judgment. We found no systematic effect of temporal distance, the effect of social distance consistent with Eyal et al., and the reversed effect of direct construal level manipulation, consistent with Gong and Medin. Possible explanations for the incompatible results are discussed.

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