Embodied and Embedded Morality: Divinity, Identity, and Disgust

Our understanding of human morality would benefit from an integrated interdisciplinary approach, built on the assumption that human beings are multidimensional unities with real, irreducible, and mutually interdependent spiritual, relational, emotional, rational, and physiological aspects. We could integrate relevant information from neurobiological, psychosocial, and theological perspectives, avoiding unnecessary reductionism and naturalism. This approach is modeled by addressing the particular limited role of disgust in morality. Psychosocial research reveals disgust as a universal emotion that enables evaluation and regulation of certain moral behaviors and is involved in cultural identity. Theologically, many religious traditions, including the Judeo‐Christian, use disgust in conjunction with moral codes designed to preserve purity and communal identity as the people of God. The concept of natural moral law suggests that morality is embodied in human nature. Neurobiology is beginning to trace the neural circuitry involved in disgust and in moral evaluation, suggesting that emotions are a necessary basis for moral judgment and revealing intriguing relationships between disgust, morality, and other aspects of the psyche. Several problems that arise within these disciplines and at their intersections are identified. Extension of the model to other aspects of human morality would further illuminate our understanding of morality without sacrificing its complexity and richness.     

论孝在中国传统社会中的异化

孝是伴随着家庭出现而出现的 ,其自然意义是指对父母的能养与敬事 ,属于私德范畴。自春秋战国以来 ,在以儒家为主的诸多学派对其进行的理论膨胀与实践延伸中 ,发生了愈益深刻的异化。这种异化 ,一方面表现为随着孝的社会化、政治化 ,使其由家庭私德而放大为社会公德与政治道德 ;另一方面 ,则是通过孝的法律化 ,将社会与政治的种种规范注入了作为家庭私德的孝中 ,使其由道德规范发展为法律规范 ,更加远离其本来。孝的这种异化趋势对中国传统社会道德的构建产生了深远影响     

试析道教劝善书中的生态伦理思想

道教劝善书作为一种伦理道德教化书 ,其中所述的伦理道德规范不仅用以调节人与人之间、人与社会之间的相互关系 ,而且还进一步推广到调节人与动植物、人与自然的关系 ;它主张自然界生命的平等性 ,倡导“贵生”的生命情怀 ,提出“是道则进 ,非道则退”的生态伦理行为准则 ,从而形成了具有神学特征的以生命为中心的生态伦理观。     

试论未成年人思想道德建设的三个重要环节

未成年人思想道德建设既是一项长远的战略任务 ,又是一项紧迫的现实任务。在加强和改进未成年人思想道德建设中 ,要发挥家庭的基础作用 ,学校的主导作用和社会环境的感染作用 ,三者要互相配合 ,共谋以德育人的百年大计。     

DANCING WITH THE SACRED: EXCERPTS

Abstract. In excerpts from my Dancing with the Sacred (2002), I use ideas from modern science, our world's religions, and my own experience to highlight three themes of the book. First, working within the framework of a scientific worldview, I develop a concept of the sacred (or God) as the creative activity of nature, human history, and individual life. Second, I offer a relational understanding of human nature that I call our social‐ecological selves and suggest some general considerations about what it means to live meaningfully and morally in an evolutionary world. Third, I explore how we might be at home in a universe that is constantly changing and in which suffering and death are interwoven with life and new creation.     

正义王国的理想--柏拉图政治哲学评析

柏拉图以思辨哲学为主的思想体系中包含着丰富的实践哲学,以正义为核心的政治哲学便是其集中表现。柏拉图所设计的理想的城邦国家是以“贤人政制”作为标准模式的。这种政制以理念论为指导思想,以正义为根本原则,以智慧、勇敢、节制为伦理基础,以善为最高目的;实施这种政制的社会是以奴隶制为基础的严格的等级制、等级分工的社会,通过特制的教育制度培养一批身心健全、德才兼备、有知识有政治智慧的贤能的统治者、“哲学王”,由他们来执掌政权,在统治者集团内部实行财产公有,妇女和子女共有,男女平等,防止统治者腐败变质,以确保这种政制世代相传。     

人际关系紧张的伦理因素与疾病相关性研究--心身疾病和神经症患者的社会伦理病因调查

伦理道德与健康疾病的相关性研究对预防疾病,增进健康,推动医学模式转变,促进和谐社会的建设有积极的意义.502个病例调查说明,伦理道德与疾病有密切相关性;不道德的因素是危害心身健康的主要伦理因素.     

Cosmopolitanism and Global Justice

Philosophical attention to problems about global justice is flourishing in a way it has not in any time in memory. This paper considers some reasons for the rise of interest in the subject and reflects on some dilemmas about the meaning of the idea of the cosmopolitan in reasoning about social institutions, concentrating on the two principal dimensions of global justice, the economic and the political.Opening address of the Mini-Conference on Global Justice, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division, 2004 Annual Meeting, Pasadena, California, March 27, 2004. I am grateful for comments to Darrel Moellendorf and to my copanelists Michael Blake, Kristen Hessler, Jon Mandle, Mathias Risse and Leif Wenar.     

Nietzsche on morality as a “sign language of the affects”

Abstract

This article argues that Nietzsche’s meta-ethics is basically a form of sentimentalism (as opposed to cognitivism), but a form of sentimentalism that includes cognitive components in the sentiments that are involved. The article also ascribes to Nietzsche the more original position that the moral sentiments in question vary dramatically between historical periods, cultures, and even individuals, sometimes indeed to the point of becoming inverted between one case and another. Finally, the article also attributes to Nietzsche a hermeneutic insight into certain problems that this situation causes for the accurate interpretation of other people’s (moral) viewpoints. Along the way, the article in addition argues that Nietzsche’s positions on all these issues were molded not only by such well-known influences as Paul Rée and Hume, but also, and indeed more strongly, by Herder (and Hegel), and it develops some grounds for thinking that the positions in question are highly plausible ones.     

The moral contents of anti‐atheist prejudice (and why atheists should care about it)

Anti‐atheist prejudice is pervasive worldwide. Past research indicates that this is driven by perceptions of atheist immorality, yet such perceptions have not been explored in detail. Using Moral Foundations Theory and samples of U.S. Christians, we investigated whether anti‐atheist prejudice is explained by atheists' perceived adherence to certain foundational moral values more than others. Study 1 participants completed measures of moral value endorsements from the perspective of a typical atheist. Study 2 participants read that either atheists or people in general strongly endorse one of five moral foundations. Anti‐atheist prejudice was consistently explained best by perceived atheist concern for values of caring/compassion rather than fairness/justice, loyalty, deferential respect, or purity/decency. Findings suggest that efforts to reduce anti‐atheist prejudice should emphasize atheists' capacity for kindness and caring.