Conscience as a higher moral capacity

The article is devoted to the psychological analysis of the concept “conscience”, which is considered in connection with the psychological model of spiritual capacities [the author’s previous works of 2010, 2016]. Conscience is described as a higher moral capacity related to the moral component/level of this model. The psychological frame of considering conscience within the psychological model of spiritual capacities allows emphasising its spiritual nature; explaining the dual nature of its manifestation – rationality/irrationality; showing its connection with higher meanings and absolute values, as well as spiritual and moral qualities, spiritual altruistic orientation, moral feelings and moral experience; noting its interaction with the higher capacities of all three components/levels of the model of spiritual capacities – moral, mental, transcendent. Conscience is interpreted as a regulator of moral behaviour, as a spiritual mentor, guiding a person on the path from the egocentric “I” to the spiritual “I”. Thanks to conscience, a person rises to the highest level of personality functioning – a spiritual one, at which it manifests itself as a spiritual personality, focused on the principles of absolute morality.

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Women in the Writings of the Fathers: Language, Belief, and Reality

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/s0424208400011979 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Graham Gould

Keyword(s):

Equal Access ◽

Access To Education ◽

Church Fathers ◽

Moral Goodness ◽

Moral Qualities ◽

Practical Effect ◽

Good Wife ◽

Intellectual Environment ◽

The Church ◽

Moral Capacity

The Church Fathers inherited from their social and intellectual environment a long tradition of debate about the physical, moral, and intellectual capacities of women. It would be an oversimplification to say that the uniform teaching of ancient philosophers and rhetoricians was that women were in every respect naturally inferior to men. Plato, for one, defended the view that moral goodness is the same for women as for men; the fact that they perform different tasks—the duties of a citizen in the case of a (free) man, and of a good wife, directing her household in obedience to her husband, in the case of a woman—does not mean that the same moral qualities of justice and temperance are not required of both. In his Republic, a radical programme for the restructuring of traditional society, Plato advocates equal access to education for women and an equality of opportunity for the intellectually able, regardless of sex, to rise to leading roles in the administration of the State. He continues to believe that most women will be inferior to most men at important tasks; but ‘it was something to have it said that sex is not relevant to natural ability and moral capacity’, and it is possible to detect the influence of subsequent philosophers who agreed with Plato in forming ‘an increasing belief in the competence and trustworthiness of women’ in financial and political affairs, even if the belief was to have little practical effect in changing socially-accepted roles.

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LPCD framework: Analytical tool or psychological model?

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18001383 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Author(s):

David Danks

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Analytical Tool ◽

Mathematical Framework ◽

Bayesian Decision ◽

Perceptual Decision Making ◽

Psychological Model ◽

Psychological Reality ◽

Psychological Theories ◽

Target Article ◽

Bayesian Decision Making

AbstractThe target article uses a mathematical framework derived from Bayesian decision making to demonstrate suboptimal decision making but then attributes psychological reality to the framework components. Rahnev & Denison's (R&D) positive proposal thus risks ignoring plausible psychological theories that could implement complex perceptual decision making. We must be careful not to slide from success with an analytical tool to the reality of the tool components.

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The dual nature of obesity in metabolic programming: quantity versus quality of adipose tissue

Clinical Science ◽

10.1042/cs20201028 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 134 (18) ◽

pp. 2447-2451

Author(s):

Anissa Viveiros ◽

Gavin Y. Oudit

Keyword(s):

Adipose Tissue ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Maternal Obesity ◽

Metabolic Programming ◽

Dual Nature ◽

Prevalence Of Obesity ◽

Adipose Tissue Volume ◽

Males And Females ◽

Metabolically Healthy

Abstract The global prevalence of obesity has been rising at an alarming rate, accompanied by an increase in both childhood and maternal obesity. The concept of metabolic programming is highly topical, and in this context, describes a predisposition of offspring of obese mothers to the development of obesity independent of environmental factors. Research published in this issue of Clinical Science conducted by Litzenburger and colleagues (Clin. Sci. (Lond.) (2020) 134, 921–939) have identified sex-dependent differences in metabolic programming and identify putative signaling pathways involved in the differential phenotype of adipose tissue between males and females. Delineating the distinction between metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity is a topic of emerging interest, and the precise nature of adipocytes are key to pathogenesis, independent of adipose tissue volume.

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