On the alleged connection between moral evil and human freedom

Those who advance the traditional argument from human freedom presume that human freedom provides an adequate explanation of moral evil. I argue that this presumption is erroneous. An adequate explanation of our capacity to make choices that produce moral evil must be distinguished from an adequate explanation of the actuality of such choices. Human freedom may account for our ability to make choices that issue in moral evil. It cannot, by itself, account for our actually making such choices. Something more than our potential for choices that produce moral evil is required to adequately explain the profusion of moral evil that we actually find in the world.     

从道德模范说起

这些年来,社会道德建设问题不仅引起了社会各界的严重关切,也引起了学术界的严重关切。然而如何建设良好的社会道德?却有着不同的答案。其中为我们大家所熟知、又     

On experiencing moral properties

Synthese - Do we perceptually experience moral properties like rightness and wrongness? For example, as in Gilbert Harman’s classic case, when we see a group of young hoodlums pour gasoline...     

论唐君毅的道德观——读《道德自我之建立》

唐君毅是中国现代史上著名的哲学家,也是现代新儒家的代表人物之一。其道德观是建立在其心本体论哲学之基础上的,他对道德生活本质、道德自我在宇宙中的地位、现实世界之物质是精神之体现的论述,以及希望建立一个充满高尚理想与道德价值的社会的思想,对于我们当今构建和谐社会无疑具有积极的启迪意义。     

帛书《易传》四篇天人道德观析论

本文通过对帛书易传<二三子问>、<易之义>、<要>、<缪和、昭力>四篇的分析,认为帛传四篇为孔子<易>论,其中包涵着<论语>、<孔子集语>、传世本<易传>等反映孔子思想的传世文献所隐微罕见的天人道德观念;帛传四篇表现了孔子在涵括三代以至春秋新旧天人观念的基础上对于天人内涵的初步的哲学改造,反映了孔子将传统的主宰之天转化为道德之天、并将传统的主体对于形上存在的外在超越关系转化为内在超越关系的致思取向,从而凸显了孔子作为当时敏锐而深邃的思想家的形象;帛传四篇所涵具的孔子天人道德思想补足了三代天命德政观与思孟天道性命思想之间的逻辑缺环,是经由曾子(<天圆>)而达致<中庸>、郭店儒家简、<孟子>乃至传世本<易传>所体现的天道性命思想高峰的理论根据.     

The timing of appraisals

The appraisal process consists of the subjective evaluation that occurs during an individual's encounter with significant events in the environment, determining the nature of the emotional reaction and experience. Placed in the context of appraisal theories of emotion-elicitation and differentiation, the aim of the present research was to test empirically the hypothesis that the intrinsic pleasantness evaluation occurs before the goal conduciveness evaluation. In two studies, intrinsically pleasant and unpleasant images were used to manipulate pleasantness, and a specific event in a Pacman-type videogame was used to manipulate goal conduciveness. Facial EMG was used to measure facial reactions to each evaluation. As predicted, facial reactions to the intrinsic pleasantness manipulation were faster than facial reactions to the goal conduciveness manipulation. These results provide good empirical support for the sequential nature of the appraisal process.     

On epistemic and moral certainty: A wittgensteinian approach

Abstract

Epistemic and moral certainities like ‘This is a hand’ or ‘Killing people is evil’ will be interpreted as constitutive rules of language games, such that they are unjustifiable, undeniable and serving as obliging standards of truth, goodness and rationality for members of a community engaging in the respective practices.     

Confronting deep moral disagreement: the President's Council on Bioethics, moral status, and human embryos

The report of the President's Council on Bioethics, Human Cloning and Human Dignity, addresses the central ethical, political, and policy issue in human embryonic stem cell research: the moral status of extracorporeal human embryos. The Council members were in sharp disagreement on this issue and essentially failed to adequately engage and respectfully acknowledge each others' deepest moral concerns, despite their stated commitment to do so. This essay provides a detailed critique of the two extreme views on the Council (i.e., embryos have full moral status or they have none at all) and then gives theoretical grounding for our judgment about the intermediate moral status of embryos. It also supplies an account of how to address profound moral disagreements in the public arena, especially by way of constructing a middle ground that deliberately pays sincere respect to the views of those with whom it has deep disagreements.