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1.
Nora Hämäläinen 《Ethical Theory and Moral Practice》2009,12(5):539-553
In this paper I discuss the viability of the claim that at least some forms of moral theory are harmful for sound moral thought
and practice. This claim was put forward by e.g. Elisabeth Anscombe (1981(1958)) and by Annette Baier, Peter Winch, D.Z Phillips and Bernard Williams in the 1970’s–1980’s. To this day aspects of it have
found resonance in both post-Wittgensteinian and virtue ethical quarters. The criticism has on one hand contributed to a substantial
change and broadening of the scope of analytic moral philosophy. On the other hand it is, at least in its most strongly anti-theoretical
formulations, now broadly considered outdated and—to the extent that it is still defended—insensitive to the changes that
have occurred within the field in the last 20–30 years. The task of this paper is to relocate the anti-theoretical critique
into the field of analytic ethics today. 相似文献
2.
Justin P. McBrayer 《Philosophical Studies》2010,149(3):305-320
One popular reason for rejecting moral realism is the lack of a plausible epistemology that explains how we come to know moral
facts. Recently, a number of philosophers have insisted that it is possible to have moral knowledge in a very straightforward
way—by perception. However, there is a significant objection to the possibility of moral perception: it does not seem that
we could have a perceptual experience that represents a moral property, but a necessary condition for coming to know that
X is F by perception is the ability to have a perceptual experience that represents something as being F. Call this the ‘Representation Objection’ to moral perception. In this paper I argue that the Representation Objection to
moral perception fails. Thus I offer a limited defense of moral perception. 相似文献
3.
The present essay thinks along the comparative, philosophical lines that Cheng Chung-ying’s project of “onto-hermeneutics” draws in order to shed light on the relations between ontology and epistemology
in the hermeneutic act. In the process, not only will we be thinking with Cheng and some Western hermeneutic theorists, but we will also be thinking through history by examining the Confucian act of reading. To the extent that any hermeneutic exercise, in accordance with Cheng’s
construal, cannot merely be a disembodied act of theoretical knowing but is also moral effort that entails personal cultivation—or,
in Heidegger’s and Gadamer’s terms, Bildung—its espousal and its practice necessarily embody a larger conception of culture. In fact, precisely in terms of the intimate
engagement with culture, Confucian insights, filtered through Cheng’s onto-hermeneutic lenses, may have much to offer contemporary
hermeneutics. 相似文献
4.
Peter Brian Barry 《Ethical Theory and Moral Practice》2011,14(1):5-21
Almost everyone allows that conditions can obtain that exempt agents from moral responsibility—that someone is not a morally
responsible agent if certain conditions obtain. In his seminal “Freedom and Resentment,” Peter Strawson denies that the truth
of determinism globally exempts agents from moral responsibility. As has been noted elsewhere, Strawson appears committed
to the surprising thesis that being an evil person is an exempting condition. Less often noted is the fact that various Strawsonians—philosophers
sympathetic with Strawson’s account of moral responsibility—at least appear to have difficulty incorporating evil persons
into their accounts of moral responsibility. In what follows, I argue that Strawson is not committed to supposing that being
evil is an exempting condition—at least, that he can allow that evil persons are morally responsible agents. 相似文献
5.
6.
The Great Apes and the Severely Disabled: Moral Status and Thick Evaluative Concepts 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Logi Gunnarsson 《Ethical Theory and Moral Practice》2008,11(3):305-326
The literature of bioethics suffers from two serious problems. (1) Most authors are unable to take seriously both the rights
of the great apes and of severely disabled human infants. Rationalism—moral status rests on rational capacities—wrongly assigns
a higher moral status to the great apes than to all severely disabled human infants with less rational capacities than the
great apes. Anthropocentrism—moral status depends on membership in the human species—falsely grants all humans a higher moral
status than the great apes. Animalism—moral status is dependent on the ability to suffer—mistakenly equates the moral status
of humans and most animals. (2) The concept person is widely used for justificatory purposes, but it seems that it cannot play such a role. It seems that it is either redundant
or unable to play any justificatory role. I argue that we can solve the second problem by understanding person as a thick evaluative concept. This then enables us to justify assigning a higher moral status to the great apes than to
simple animals: the great apes are persons. To solve the first problem, I argue that certain severely disabled infants have
a higher moral status than the great apes because they are dependent upon human relationships for their well-being. Only very
limited abilities are required for such relationships, and the question who is capable of them must be based on thick evaluative
concepts. Thus, it turns out that to make progress in bioethics we must assign thick evaluative concepts a central role.
相似文献
Logi GunnarssonEmail: |
7.
Roddy Cowie 《Current Psychology》2002,21(2):133-143
Natural environments often generate experiences that combine great emotional and moral power—“charged” experiences. Their
characteristics are explored through writings that capture them convincingly. They appear to have a perceptual character.
Perception of the scene is invested with a sense of something beyond it, and much bigger. It may be God, or immensity in time
or space, or the essence of a nation. This encounter is often connected with moral authority. A recurring theme is the sense
that environment and the things in it—including the observer—are a self-similar pattern. People are not passive recipients
of these experiences. They seek them out. Evoking the environment in words can often evoke the charged experience too—at least
in part. The material suggests tasks for psychologists—most simply, finding systematic ways to describe these experiences.
That may help other environmental disciplines, which face difficulty characterising the dimension of response. Theoretically,
the material raises questions about the representations generated by perceptual processes. The observation that powerful moral
imperatives seem to be given in the act of perceiving is also suggestive for the psychology of morality. Culture certainly
plays a part in charged responses, but landscapes have the power to be invested with an emotional and moral charge where other
stimuli may not.
I am indebted to Helen Ross for provoking this article; to Bert Hodges, Eamonn Hughes, David Hale and most particularly to
Edna Longley for ideas and examples; and to Noel Sheehy for encouragement. They cannot be blamed for my misunderstandings. 相似文献
8.
Roddy Cowie 《Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.)》2002,21(2):133-143
Natural environments often generate experiences that combine great emotional and moral power—“charged” experiences. Their
characteristics are explored through writings that capture them convincingly. They appear to have a perceptual character.
Perception of the scene is invested with a sense of something beyond it, and much bigger. It may be God, or immensity in time
or space, or the essence of a nation. This encounter is often connected with moral authority. A recurring theme is the sense
that environment and the things in it—including the observer—are a self-similar pattern. People are not passive recipients
of these experiences. They seek them out. Evoking the environment in words can often evoke the charged experience too—at least
in part. The material suggests tasks for psychologists—most simply, finding systematic ways to describe these experiences.
That may help other environmental disciplines, which face difficulty characterising the dimension of response. Theoretically,
the material raises questions about the representations generated by perceptual processes. The observation that powerful moral
imperatives seem to be given in the act of perceiving is also suggestive for the psychology of morality. Culture certainly
plays a part in charged responses, but landscapes have the power to be invested with an emotional and moral charge where other
stimuli may not.
I am indebted to Helen Ross for provoking this article; to Bert Hodges, Eamonn Hughes, David Hale and most particularly to
Edna Longley for ideas and examples; and to Noel Sheehy for encouragement. They cannot be blamed for my misunderstandings. 相似文献
9.
The inference from determinism to predictability, though intuitively plausible, needs to be qualified in an important respect.
We need to distinguish between two different kinds of predictability. On the one hand, determinism implies external predictability, that is, the possibility for an external observer, not part of the universe, to predict, in principle, all future states
of the universe. Yet, on the other hand, embedded predictability as the possibility for an embedded subsystem in the universe to make such predictions, does not obtain in a deterministic
universe. By revitalizing an older result—the paradox of predictability—we demonstrate that, even in a deterministic universe, there are fundamental, non-epistemic limitations on the ability of
one subsystem embedded in the universe to predict the future behaviour of other subsystems embedded in the same universe.
As an explanation, we put forward the hypothesis that these limitations arise because the predictions themselves are physical events which are part of the law-like causal chain of events in the deterministic universe. While the limitations on embedded predictability
cannot in any direct way show evidence of free human agency, we conjecture that, even in a deterministic universe, human agents
have a take-it-or-leave-it control over revealed predictions of their future behaviour. 相似文献
10.
Kurtis Hagen 《Dao》2006,5(2):313-330
Conclusion My purpose has been more negative than positive. That is, I have challenged the view that Sorai understoodtian as an intentional agent. At minimum, Sorai’s philosophical views do not depend upon such a conception oftian, and he refrains from characterizingtian in such terms when he discusses the concept oftian directly. However, I do not claim to have proven that Sorai’s view oftian was completely naturalistic, or even that Sorai did not—at some level—believe thattian had intentions. I have, I hope, shown thatthe case that Sorai viewedtian as intentional has not been convincingly made. Further, something closer to a dynamic and indeterminate naturalistic view
is a reasonable alternative. On my reading, Sorai steers a course between the Song Confucian view oftian as static and knowable (a view that he explicitly rejects) and a view oftian as intentional (a view he never unequivocally expresses)—indeed, he rejects the idea of personifyingtian. When Sorai speaks of thexin or “mind”of tian, he is best understood as employing a metaphor that implies complexity, mystery, activity, and perhaps moral structure, but
not intentionality in the normal sense. The complexity, indeterminacy, and dynamism oftian, as these are expressed in Sorai’s writings, do not necessarily imply willful intent on the part oftian, for they are all consistent with the Xunzian interpretation oftian as a natural process, even iftian’s regularities have a moral character. 相似文献
11.
12.
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen 《Res Publica》2009,15(2):165-178
Agent-relative restrictions prohibit minimizing violations: that is, they require us not to minimize the total number of their
violations by violating them ourselves. Frances Kamm has explained this prohibition in terms of the moral worth of persons,
which, in turn, she explains in terms of persons’ high moral status as inviolable beings. I press the following criticism
of this account: even if minimizing violations are permissible, we need not have a lower moral status provided other determinants
thereof boost it. Thus, Kamm’s account is incomplete at best. And when, to address this incompleteness, it is insisted that
our moral worth derives from specific moral statuses, the inviolability account comes to seem deficient because it begs the
question against those who are not initially persuaded that minimizing violations are impermissible.
相似文献
Kasper Lippert-RasmussenEmail: |
13.
Daniel M. Bernstein Michael E. Rudd Edgar Erdfelder Ryan Godfrey Elizabeth F. Loftus 《Psychonomic bulletin & review》2009,16(3):463-468
Participants provided information about their childhood by rating their confidence about whether they had experienced various
events (e.g., “broke a window playing ball”). On some trials, participants unscrambled a key word from the event phrase (e.g.,
wdinwo—window) or an unrelated word (e.g., gnutge—nugget) before seeing the event and giving their confidence ratings. The act of unscrambling led participants to increase their
confidence that the event occurred in their childhood, but only when the confidence rating immediately followed the act of
unscrambling. This increase in confidence mirrors the “revelation effect” observed in word recognition experiments. In the
present article, we analyzed our data using a new signal detection mixture distribution model that does not require the researcher
to know the veracity of memory judgments a priori. Our analysis reveals that unscrambling a key word or an unrelated word
affects response bias and discriminability in autobiographical memory tests in ways that are very similar to those that have
been previously found for word recognition tasks. 相似文献
14.
As a U.S. civil rights policy, affirmative action commonly denotes race-conscious and result-oriented efforts by private and
public officials to correct the unequal distribution of economic opportunity and education attributed to slavery, segregation,
poverty and racism. Opponents argue that affirmative action (1) violates ideals of color-blind public policies, offending
moral principles of fairness and constitutional principles of equality and due process; (2) has proven to be socially and
politically divisive; (3) has not made things better; (4) mainly benefits middle-class, wealthy and foreign-born blacks; (4)
stigmatizes its beneficiaries; and (5) compromises the self-esteem and self-respect of beneficiaries who know that they have
been awarded preferential treatment. By way of a thought experiment, imagine that after decades of public policy and experimentation,
the United States public finally came to agree: affirmative action is morally and legally wrong. Employing such a thought
experiment, this essay by a beneficiary of affirmative action—written in response to James Sterba’s Affirmative Action for the Future (2009)—examines duties of moral repair and the possibility that the past beneficiaries of affirmative action owe apologies,
compensation or some other highly personal form of corrective accountability. Beneficiaries of affirmative action have experienced
woundedness and moral insecurity. Indeed, the practice of affirmative action comes with a psychology, a set of psychological
benefits and burdens whose moral logic those of us who believe in our own fallibility—as much as we believe in the justice
of what we have received and conferred on others—should address. 相似文献
15.
Liezl van Zyl 《Philosophia》2009,37(1):91-104
In this paper I argue that the disagreement between modern moral philosophers and (some) virtue ethicists about whether motive
affects rightness is a result of conceptual disagreement, and that when they develop a theory of ‘right action,’ the two parties
respond to two very different questions. Whereas virtue ethicists tend to use ‘right’ as interchangeable with ‘good’ or ‘virtuous’
and as implying moral praise, modern moral philosophers use it as roughly equivalent to ‘in accordance with moral obligation.’
One implication of this is that the possibility of an act being right by accident does not pose a problem for consequentialism
or deontology. A further implication is that it reveals a shortcoming in virtue ethics, namely that it does not—yet needs
to—present an account of moral obligation.
相似文献
Liezl van ZylEmail: |
16.
Jean-Paul Vessel 《Philosophical Studies》2009,142(2):183-195
There is a heated dispute among consequentialists concerning the following deontic principle:
The principle states that for any acts (or any bearers of normative status) a and b, if it is obligatory for a specific agent to do the conjunctive (or compound) act a & b, then that agent is obligated to do a and is also obligated to do b—the deontic operator of obligation distributes over conjunction. Possibilists—those who believe that we should always pursue
a “best” possible course of action available to us—accept the principle as true. Actualists—those who believe that certain future facts about
the actual world can generate obligations incompatible with the best possible course of action available to us—reject the principle
as false. And recent commentators on the dispute—some who endorse DC, others who reject it—have attempted to dig out and
defend intermediary positions, suggesting that extreme versions of each view are unsatisfactory.
I’m out to defend DC from the actualist attack. Here I briefly present the central actualist argument against DC. I then
show that possibilism has all of the resources to explain the phenomena with which actualists are so concerned. Next, I try
to diagnose the actualists’ malcontent: The relevance of certain subjunctive conditionals to consequentialist reasoning has
been vastly overemphasized. Finally, I attempt to shed some light on the nature of consequentialist conditionals by incorporating
possibilist insights into a semantics for subjunctive conditionals appropriate for consequentialist theorizing.
相似文献
Jean-Paul VesselEmail: |
17.
Harry Hummels 《Science and engineering ethics》1999,5(1):55-72
In his article ‘Better Communication Between Engineers and Managers: Some Ways to Prevent Many Ethically Hard Choices’1 Michael Davis analyzes the causes of the disaster in terms of a communications gap between management and engineers. When
the communication between (representatives of) both groups breaks down, the organization is in (moral) trouble. Crucial information
gets stuck somewhere in the organization prohibiting a careful discussion and weighing of all (moral) arguments. The resulting
judgment has therefore little (moral) quality. In this paper I would like to comment on some of Michael Davis’s interesting
and thought-provoking insights and ideas. A company which implements Davis’s recommendations at least shows some sensitivity
to organizational moral issues. But it might miss the point that moral trouble can also result from a common understanding
between managers and engineers. Organizational members sometimes tend to be myopic with regard to safety issues. This paper:
相似文献
1. | describes different meanings of safety Managers and engineers, as Davis mentions, are sometimes willing to compromise quality, but do sacrifice safety. It is my contention that safety—in the sense of putting people’s lives on the line—will always be compromised, and that the discussion is about the ways to negotiate the risks./li |
2. | focuses on a shared understanding of the situation and its implications for safety Using examples from a case study I did on behalf of a commercial airline,2 I will try to show that it is not always the communications gap between managers and engineers which poses a risk to the stakeholders involved, but a common understanding of the situation. |
3. | focuses on a ‘timely concatenation of both active and latent failures’ as a cause for accidents I will argue that—in spite of our efforts to strengthen ethical consciousness and organizational practices—there will always be accidents. They are part of the human condition, since we cannot completely control the complexity of the situations in which they occur. One can, however, make them less costly. |
18.
David Bittner 《Journal of religion and health》2010,49(4):603-619
In this article, David Bittner explodes the myth, restated in Brideshead
Revisited (1945), that Polynesians are “happy and harmless.” He does so for the same reason that Evelyn Waugh does: “the grim invasion of
trader, administrator, missionary, and tourist” has changed all that (p. 174). Touring Hawaii in July of ’09, Bittner was
interested to discover some unusual bits of American heritage, but saddened to see how “civilization” and “Americanization”
actually seem to have eroded the Hawaiian people’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Bittner’s dual religious
heritage—Judaism by birth and upbringing and Catholicism by choice in mid-life—has given him the perspective to apply the
lessons of Hawaiian history to his own personal issues, particularly forgiveness. 相似文献
19.
Elshtain JB 《Theoretical medicine and bioethics》2008,29(3):161-169
In an era in which certain arenas of scientific research have become increasingly controversial, this article critically evaluates
what it means to “believe in science.” Many scientists today seem to claim a sovereign right to no political interference
under the rubric of freedom. This article questions such a notion, and explores the dominance of science and the silencing
of moral voices by undertaking two brief investigations—the first into National Socialist Germany, which insisted that it
was defined by “applied biology,” and the second into the world of contemporary American biomedicine. When all ethical barriers
are eradicated, it seems that a will to power takes over—manifested in Nazi Germany’s vaunted scientific autonomy. In light
of these sobering historical examples, this article reminds the reader that members of the public, including physicians, rightly
deliberate about how to conscientiously order their lives together, and that part of that instrinsically political deliberation is to set limits to the ways medical
science is applied and what scientists may do in pursuit of their goals.
相似文献
Jean Bethke ElshtainEmail: |
20.
Richard M. Glatz 《Philosophical Studies》2008,139(2):257-272
Harry Frankfurt has famously criticized the principle of alternate possibilities—the principle that an agent is morally responsible
for performing some action only if able to have done otherwise than to perform it—on the grounds that it is possible for an
agent to be morally responsible for performing an action that is inevitable for the agent when the reasons for which the agent
lacks alternate possibilities are not the reasons for which the agent has acted. I argue that an incompatibilist about determinism
and moral responsibility can safely ignore so-called “Frakfurt-style cases” and continue to argue for incompatibilism on the
grounds that determinism rules out the ability to do otherwise. My argument relies on a simple—indeed, simplistic—weakening
of the principle of alternate possibilities that is explicitly designed to be immune to Frankfurt-style criticism. This alternative
to the principle of alternate possibilities is so simplistic that it will no doubt strike many readers as philosophically
fallow. I argue that it is not. I argue that the addition of one highly plausible premise allows for the modified principle
to be employed in an argument for incompatibilism that begins with the observation that determinism rules out the ability
to do otherwise. On the merits of this argument I conclude that deterministic moral responsibility is impossible and that
Frankfurt’s criticism of the principle of alternate possibilities—even if successful to that end—may be safely ignored.
相似文献
Richard M. GlatzEmail: |