Lists of the Virtues
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The Political Sociology and Anthropology of Evil: Tricksterology
“Because evil is a term fraught with religious overtones, it tends to be under- theorized in our largely secular contemporary culture. Yet something like evil continues to exist, arguably more forcefully today than ever, so the authors of this timely and important book assert. They argue boldly that understanding the continued presence of evil in the modern world requires reconceiving evil through the mythical figure of the trickster, a cross-cultural symbol that repre- sents the perennial temptation to ignore the inherent limits of human thought and action. A wide ranging study that draws on multiple disciplinary sources, Horvath and Szakolczai illustrate forcefully how contemporary efforts to maximize productivity across all sectors of our social order violates the ethos of limits, and only liberates further the forces of destruction. In an age of increasingly mindless (and therefore runaway) processes, we would do well to heed the message of this significant study.” – Gilbert Germain, Professor of Political Thought at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada “A complex and timely meditation on the nature of evil in human societies, reaching back into the distant past – while not all will agree with its methods or conclusions, this book offers provocative ideas for consideration by anthro- pologists, philosophers, and culture historians.” – David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology, University College London, UK “This book offers an original and thought-provoking engagement with a problem for which we still lack adequate perspectives: the disastrous experience of advanced modernity with what we can provisionally call demonic power.” – Johann Arnason, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, La Trobe University, Australia “Horvath and Szakolczai provide a remarkable service in bringing the neglec- ted figure of the trickster into the spotlight. -
Rosalind Hursthouse, on Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999
Rosalind Hursthouse, On Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. x, 275. Reviewed by Gilbert Harman, Department of Philosophy, Princeton Univer- sity Virtue ethics is atype of ethicaltheory in which the notion of virtue or good character plays a central role. This splendid new book describes a “program” for the development of a particular (“Aristotelian”) form of virtue ethics. The book is intended to be used as a textbook, but should be read by anyone interested in moral philosophy. Hursthouse has been a major contributor to the development of virtue ethics and the program she describes, while making use of the many contributions of others, is very much her program, with numerous new ideas and insights. The book has three parts. The first dispels common misunderstandings and explains how virtue ethics applies to complex moral issues. The sec- ond discusses moral motivation, especially the motivation involved in doing something because it is right. The third explains how questions about the objectivity of ethics are to be approached within virtue ethics. Structure Hursthouse’s virtue ethics takes as central the conception of a human be- ing who possesses all ethical virtues of character and no vices or defects of character—”human being” rather than “person” because the relevant char- acter traits are “natural” to the species. To a first approximation, virtue ethics says that a right action is an action among those available that a perfectly virtuous human being would charac- teristically do under the circumstances. This is only a first approximation because of complications required in order accurately to describe certain moral dilemmas. -
Transition Booklet
Religious Studies Year 11-12 Bridging Project Welcome to Religious Studies at A Level! Now that you’ve decided to study Religious Studies at A level, you’ll need to do a bit of preparation. This pack contains activities and resources to prepare you to start your A level in September. It is aimed to be used throughout the rest of the summer term and over the summer holidays to ensure you are ready to start your course in September. When you arrive to your first lesson in September you should also bring a folder, lined paper, dividers and plastic wallets. This course is split into 3 components: 1. Study of a Religion (Hinduism) 2. Ethics 3. Philosophy The resources include: A task for each of the three components. Including research, podcasts, reviews, questions and videos. There is also some suggested tasks to complete and books you could read. 1. Study of a Religion The religion you will be studying is Hinduism. Please read through this article https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/12-things-you- need-to-know-about-hinduism/ from the article add a list of key terms and definitions you think will be useful for the course. You could also watch the following BBC documentary on Gandhi. Watch all 3 episodes and make notes on what Gandhi believed and why he was so important to the development of modern India. https://youtu.be/TQNbHVjC0sQ 2. Ethics Use the following website to choose a podcast that interests you. Listen to the podcast and write a review below. Think about the ethical issues that arise and arguments for and against the issue. -
Educational Rights and the Roles of Virtues, Perfectionism, and Cultural Progress
The Law of Education: Educational Rights and the Roles of Virtues, Perfectionism, and Cultural Progress R. GEORGE WRIGHT* I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 385 II. EDUCATION: PURPOSES, RECENT OUTCOMES, AND LEGAL MECHANISMS FOR REFORM ................................................................ 391 A. EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AND RIGHTS LANGUAGE ...................... 391 B. SOME RECENT GROUNDS FOR CONCERN IN FULFILLING EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ............................................................. 393 C. THE BROAD RANGE OF AVAILABLE TECHNIQUES FOR THE LEGAL REFORM OF EDUCATION ............................................................... 395 III. SOME LINKAGES BETWEEN EDUCATION AND THE BASIC VIRTUES, PERFECTIONISM, AND CULTURAL PROGRESS ..................................... 397 IV. VIRTUES AND THEIR LEGITIMATE PROMOTION THROUGH THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ...................................................................... 401 V. PERFECTIONISM AND ITS LEGITIMATE PROMOTION THROUGH THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ...................................................................... 410 VI. CULTURAL PROGRESS OVER TIME AND ITS LEGITIMATE PROMOTION THROUGH THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM .............................................. 417 VII. CONCLUSION: EDUCATION LAW AS RIGHTS-CENTERED AND AS THE PURSUIT OF WORTHY VALUES AND GOALS: THE EXAMPLE OF HORNE V. FLORES ............................................................................................ 431 I. INTRODUCTION The law of education -
Explaining Emotional Outbursts: a Davidsonian Account of Hursthouse's Arational Actions
Aporia vol. 20 no. 1—2010 Explaining Emotional Outbursts: A Davidsonian Account of Hursthouse’s Arational Actions NICHOLAS BLOOM n his paper, “Actions, Reasons, and Causes,” Donald Davidson dis- cusses what makes an action intentional. According to Davidson, an Iagent acts intentionally if the agent acts for a reason. He defines reason as “a belief and desire” (5). This means that the agent desires to perform an action of a certain type and believes that the action she chooses is of that type. This explanation is very plausible since almost all intentional actions can be explained in this way. For example, if I want to illuminate my room and believe that turning on a light will do so, my turning on the light is intentional. In her essay “Arational Actions,” Rosalind Hursthouse presents a set of counterexamples to Davidson’s belief and desire theory of intentional action. Her counterexamples are supposed to illustrate arational actions, which she claims are intentional but do not fit into Davidson’s belief-desire formula. In this paper, I offer a response on behalf of David- son by arguing that arational actions do not exist as Hursthouse defines them. I do this by showing that Hursthouse’s arational actions either satisfy Davidson’s conditions of intentionality, or they are unintentional. My argument has four parts. First, I will explain Davidson’s causal theory of intentional action. Second, I will discuss Hursthouse’s theory of arational actions and explain how they may threaten Davidson’s theory. Third, I will present a counterargument to Hursthouse’s theory that shows how arational actions either fit into Davidson’s formula or are actually un- intentional. -
Anscombe, Foot, and Contemporary Virtue Ethics
J Value Inquiry (2010) 44:209–224 DOI 10.1007/s10790-010-9218-0 Virtue Ethics without Right Action: Anscombe, Foot, and Contemporary Virtue Ethics John Hacker-Wright Published online: 5 March 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 1 Introduction Working out a criterion of morally right action is central to developing virtue ethics.1 Most advocates of virtue ethics believe that achieving such a criterion is crucial to vindicating virtue ethics as a normative theory. Yet the centrality of this task marks a departure from the views of at least some of the philosophers credited with the revival of virtue ethics in the twentieth century, especially from the views of G.E.M. Anscombe and Philippa Foot. Anscombe especially has sharp criticisms of the way philosophers handle the concept of morally right action along with related concepts like moral obligation. Yet the work of contemporary virtue ethicists such as Rosalind Hursthouse, Michael Slote, and Christine Swanton features little discussion of Anscombe’s criticisms or the reasons that the other virtue revivalists avoided providing a criterion of moral rightness. The dominant assumption appears to be that the earlier virtue revivalists neglect establishing a criterion of morally right action because their concern is to give priority to the evaluation of an agent over his acts as a corrective to the exclusive attention given to act-evaluation in the moral philosophy of the time. For Anscombe and Foot, at least, the concern to give priority to agent-evaluation is not among their motives for advocating a return to virtues.2 Instead, they believe that moral philosophers from the modern period forward have given the terms ‘‘right’’ and ‘‘ought’’ an artificial and incoherent sense. -
Understanding Bernard Williams's Criticism of Aristotelian Naturalism
UNDERSTANDING BERNARD WILLIAMS’S CRITICISM OF ARISTOTELIAN NATURALISM Michael Addison A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of MPhil at the University of St Andrews 2015 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9315 This item is protected by original copyright Understanding Bernard Williams’s Criticism of Aristotelian Naturalism. Michael Addison This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of MPhil at the University of St Andrews 19th November 2015 Abstract: In Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (henceforth ELP) Williams claims that holding a naturalistic Aristotelian ethical theory is no longer an option for us—we cannot believe what Aristotle believed about human beings. It is the purpose of this thesis to understand what Williams means by this claim and to evaluate whether or not it constitutes a pressing argument against Aristotelian naturalism. The modern Aristotelian (represented here by Martha Nussbaum, Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse) seems to be untouched by the claim as presented—they do not have to hold Aristotle’s view of human nature. The Aristotelian approaches human nature, not from an “outside” perspective, like the scientist, but from an “inside” perspective—from the point of view of an ethically engaged agent. The method does not seek to use a theory-independent notion of human nature to vindicate the Aristotelian claim that the properly functioning human being is virtuous. Rather, the Aristotelian is engaged in a project of using the notions of virtue that we already possess, to paint a picture of the kind of lives that we can all identify with, and endorse as properly functioning. -
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Intention and Normative Belief Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8725w3wp Author Chislenko, Eugene Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Intention and Normative Belief By Eugene Chislenko A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Hannah Ginsborg, Co-Chair Professor R. Jay Wallace, Co-Chair Professor Hubert Dreyfus Professor Tania Lombrozo Spring 2016 Copyright by Eugene Chislenko 2016 Abstract Intention and Normative Belief by Eugene Chislenko Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, Berkeley Professor Hannah Ginsborg and Professor R. Jay Wallace, Co-Chairs People can be malicious, perverse, compulsive, self-destructive, indifferent, or in conflict with their own better judgment. This much is obvious—but on many traditional views, it seems puzzling or even impossible. Many philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle to Kant, Davidson, and others, have thought that we act only “under the guise of the good,” doing only what we see as good, or best, or what we ought to do. These “guise-of-the-good” views offered a way to make sense of the attribution and explanation of action, while maintaining a generous view of human nature as essentially pursuing the good. But are they not hopelessly narrow and naïve? It seems clear that we often do what we do not see as good, and even what we see as bad. -
Anscombe Reading Aristotle*
Enrahonar. An International Journal of Theoretical and Practical Reason 64, 2020 63-79 Anscombe reading Aristotle* Susana Cadilha Universidade Nova de Lisboa – IFILNOVA [email protected] Reception date: 4-11-2019 Acceptance date: 2-12-2019 Abstract Under one particular reading of it, Anscombe’s ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ is considered a seminal text in the revival of virtue ethics. Seen thus, Anscombe is implying that it is possible to do ethics without using concepts such as ‘moral ought’ or ‘moral obligation’, the perfect example being Aristotelian ethics. On the other hand, Anscombe claims that it is not useful at present to engage in moral philosophy since she finds that ‘philosophically there is a huge gap… which needs to be filled by an account of human nature, human action, …and above all of human “flourishing”’ (Anscombe, 1958: 18). The gap Anscombe refers to appears where there should be a ‘proof that an unjust man is a bad man’. My aim in this paper is to discuss the various ways in which Anscombe’s theses can be interpreted, recalling two other philosophers for whom Aristotelian virtue ethics was also essential: P. Foot and J. McDowell. I will argue that Anscombe did not expect Aristotelian ethics to answer the problems modern ethics poses. Keywords: ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’; Aristotelian ethics; virtue ethics; moral naturalism; Philippa Foot; John McDowell Resum. Anscombe llegint a Aristòtil Fent-ne una lectura particular, «Modern Moral Philosophy» (La filosofia moral moder- na) d’Anscombe es considera un text fundador en el renaixement de l’ètica de la virtut. Vist així, Anscombe insinua que és possible fer ètica sense emprar conceptes com «deure moral» o «obligació moral»; l’exemple perfecte n’és l’ètica aristotèlica. -
Maynooth Philosophical Papers Issue 5 (2008)
MAYNOOTH PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS ISSUE 5 (2008) An Anthology of Current Research from the Department of Philosophy, NUI Maynooth Issue Editor: Simon Nolan General Editor: Michael Dunne This issue of Maynooth )hilosophical apers is dedicated to the memory of !r#$%&&#r J#)n ,%ary M123 Associate Professor of Philosophy at NUI, Maynooth who died on April 12th, 2009. ISBN 978 0 901519 627 © 2009 The Department of Philosophy, National University of Ireland — Maynooth, and the Individual Authors +4567568 rrd by Dr Michael Dunne i u dr nrdun ii Michael Dunne Aodh Mac Aingil (Hugo Cavellus, 1571–1626) on Doubt, Evidence and Certitude 1 Patrick Gorevan Philippa Foot’s ‘Natural Goodness’ 9 Mette Lebech Stein’s Phenomenology of the Body: The constitution of the human being between description of experience and social construction 16 Cyril McDonnell Why Punish the Guilty? Towards a Philosophical Analysis of the State’s Justification of Punishment 21 Simon Nolan Teaching and Learning in the Summa theologiae of Gerard of Bologna (d. 1317) 35 Wayne Waxman Universality and the Analytic Unity of Apperception in Kant: a reading of CPR B133-4n 42 178731+ Susan Byrne Remarks on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Behaviourism 49 John Haydn Gurmin A Bibliography of English Language Commentaries on the Philosophy of Edith Stein 57 Conleth Loonan The De mixtione elementorum of Thomas Aquinas 75 9#r%:#rd It is my great pleasure as general editor of the Maynooth hilosophical apers to write the foreword to this year’s edition of our journal which is the fifth volume in the series. My heartfelt thanks and warmest congratulations to all of the contributors, both staff and students, and especially to the volume editor, Fr Simon Nolan, for doing such a wonderful job in bringing together this valuable collection of papers. -
The Practical Origins of Ideas
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 19/1/2021, SPi The Practical Origins of Ideas Genealogy as Conceptual Reverse-Engineering MATTHIEU QUELOZ 1 OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 19/1/2021, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Matthieu Queloz 2021 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2021 Impression: 1 Some rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The pre-press of this publication was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of this licence should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2020951579 ISBN 978–0–19–886870–5 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198868705.001.0001 Printed and bound in the UK by TJ Books Limited Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. -
I ABSTRACT in This Paper I Aim to Explain the View of the Will Put
ABSTRACT In this paper I aim to explain the view of the will put forward by John Duns Scotus in the late 13th- and early 14th-century. First, I will explain Scotus’s account of the will as free and rational. Scotus takes the will to be a self-determining, and thereby free, cause of human action. He understands it as rational insofar as it possesses and applies reasons or principles in its operation, and is thereby capable of opposite effects. Second, I will explain Scotus’s account of the two affections or motivations of the will: the love of justice and the love of the advantageous. For Scotus, the love of justice is a disposition of the will to choose for the sake of the intrinsic goodness of the object of choice (e.g., an act or thing). In contrast, the love of the advantageous is a disposition of the will to choose for the sake of the value that an object of choice has relative to the agent. Finally, I will argue that recent claims to the effect that Scotus’s view of moral motivation amounts to a radical break from eudaimonistic ethical views are unjustified. Indeed, I will claim that the motivational resources of Scotus’s view may not be different from the resources available on Aristotle’s view in the Nicomachean Ethics, and are certainly no different from those available on a plausible eudaimonistic view of ethics. Insofar as dual motives for action—i.e., the love of the advantageous and the love of justice—seem possible on both kinds of view, and insofar as both views share a similar account of the inherent goodness of an action as grounded in the suitability of the action to human nature, the two views do not necessarily seem far apart on the issue of moral or ethical motivation.