Moral Freedom Research Articles

The religious character of secular arguments supporting euthanasia and what it implies for conscientious practice in medicine.

Contemporary bioethics generally stipulates that public moral deliberation must avoid allowing religious beliefs to influence or justify health policy and law. Secular premises and arguments are assumed to maintain the neutral, common ground required for moral deliberation in the public square of a pluralistic society. However, a careful examination of non-theistic arguments used to justify euthanasia (regarding contested notions of human dignity, individual autonomy, and death as annihilation) reveals a dependence on metaethical and metaphysical beliefs that are not universally accepted in a pluralistic society. Such beliefs function in non-theistic arguments in the same way that foundational beliefs justify moral convictions in religious frameworks of belief. This parallel is apparent when religious belief is defined broadly (a la John Reeder) as 'the search for the good in light of the limits and possibilities of the real.' Seen through this interpretive lens, frameworks comprising Secular foundational commitments function, in ethically relevant respects, like the guiding beliefs found in the comprehensive frameworks of traditional religions. When conscientious practice in healthcare is reconsidered in light of this foundational similarity between the religious and the secular, it is clear that those who object to the foundational beliefs underpinning Secular arguments for euthanasia should not be required to provide, participate in, or refer patients for euthanasia (or other ethically controversial practices similarly dependent on contested frameworks of belief) in pluralistic societies that prize moral freedom as a primary human good.

Collaborative biostatistics and epidemiology in academic medical centres: A survey to assess relationships with health researchers and ethical implications.

The role of collaborative biostatisticians and epidemiologists in academic medical centers and how their degree type, supervisor type, and sex influences recognition and feelings of respect is poorly understood. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of self-identified biostatisticians and epidemiologists working in academic medical centers in the US or Canada. The survey was sent to 341 contacts at 125 institutions who were asked to forward the survey invitation to faculty and staff at their institution and posted on Community sections of the American Statistical Association website. Participants were asked a variety of questions including if they felt pressured to produce specific results, whether they had intellectual and ethical freedom to pursue appropriate use of statistical methods in collaborative research, and if they felt their contributions were appropriately recognized by collaborators. We received responses from 314 biostatisticians or related methodologists. A majority were female (59%), had a doctorate degree (52%), and reported a statistician or biostatistician supervisor (69%). Overall, most participants felt valued by their collaborators, but that they did not have sufficient calendar time to meet deadlines. Doctoral-level participants reported more autonomy in their collaborations than master's level participants. Females were less likely to feel recognized and respected compared to males. The survey results suggest that while most respondents felt valued by their collaborators, they have too many projects and need more time to critically review research. Further research is needed to understand why response differs by sex and how these responses fluctuate over time.

The Business of Liberty: Freedom and Information in Ethics, Politics, and Law, by Boudewijn de Bruin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. 240 pp.

The Business of Liberty: Freedom and Information in Ethics, Politics, and Law, by Boudewijn de Bruin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. 240 pp.

Ketaatan Kepada Bapa Sebagai Dasar Kebebasan Moral Kristiani

It is quite often that obedience is misunderstood in moral life. Most people, including Catholics, argue that someone who inclines to obedience is not free. Morevover, some Catholics do not agree that they must obey to the Magisterium because it is frequently seen as human institution. Because of that, this paper wants to scrutinize that obedience is not contrary to human freedom. It clarifies that obedience to God is an obedience to the Magisterium, the teaching of the Church. And it wants demonstrate the truth of the role of the Holy Spirit which guarantees all Christians who obey to God are having moral freedom.

Ahlâkî Özdenetim Duygusu Olarak Pişmanlığın Mahiyeti

Emotions are human attributes that are directly related to the epistemic, ethical, and aesthetic aspects of human beings. While man builds a meaningful, valuable, and beautiful life, gets motivation from emotions along with the mind. Emotions, with their multifunctional aspect, are means for determining, activating, directing, influencing, transforming, restraining, and sometimes manipulating human intentions, attitudes, and actions. For this reason, any research that treats human actions, especially morality, has to deal with emotions. The way to know the human being is to understand his emotions in his practical life. Therefore, in the gap between the stability of the theoretical and the dynamism of life, emotions become the subject of philosophical research. It is not easy to express the dynamic aspect and unbounded nature of emotion with-in the limits of language. However, for human beings, emotions are effective in their decision-making pro-cesses, intentions, orientations, and choices, in which they understand themselves, the universe, nature, matter, individuals, societies, goodness, evil, valuable and non-valued things, cope with facts and events, manage their practical life, stands out as dynamic, functional and cognitive attributes inherent in all these processes. Man experiences a wide variety of emotional states in his daily life. Thus, he has constantly changed moods with these emotional states he experiences. These experiences can be caused by external factors as well as by the influence of the internal dynamics of the human being. In terms of his social life, man has a dynamic moral life that gives emotional reactions and receives emotional effects. In this context, emotions enable man to establish a balance between himself and the self of the society in which he lives and determine his basic orientations. Emotions are motivating faculties that motivate a man to act and guide his imaginations, and evaluations of the past, present, and future. Regret is an emotion of moral self-control that addresses the self and internally organizes and constructs its morality. This emotion plays a central role, especially in the field of moral values, with its nature that affects man both in individual and social life. Re-gret, in its simplest form, appears in the form of a bitter feeling that includes the negative judgment of man's past action or inaction and is expressed with the expression of a wish. The emotion of regret is formed by the effect of internal influences in humans. Like most moral emotions, regret includes both a phenomenological sense and a cognitive judgment. Regret which is a psychologically and conceptually com-plex emotion, reveals a series of emotions such as sadness, disappointment, longing, nostalgia, and some-times the relief of not regretting something. Regret can also manifest itself as a strong, motivating sadness and a passionate complaint that things are not going as planned. It is an experience of pain, often retrospec-tive, that shapes our present and future. Regret is an emotion that arises with awareness, usually expressing disapproval of what the person did, wishing it to be different, upset, ashamed, or guilty. Regret is part of human self-control, which encourages man to learn from past and present mistakes and to correct future behavior. This emotion is a corrective and healing sense of moral self-control that arises as a result of one's internal accounting for one's actions. Regret is a necessary consequence of man's moral nature. This emo-tion stems from the fact that he is a being that can choose, that is, his moral freedom. For regret to occur, the moral action must have taken place as a result of a choice to be made among at least two alternatives. Therefore, the prerequisite for repentance is freedom. The reciprocal roles of reason and emotion on our thoughts and actions are particularly evident in the phenomenon of regret. For that reason, regret, whether in the practical or theoretical field, is an emotion related not only to the emotional side of human but also to the cognitive side. The fact that regret is a state of sadness that occurs when a person realizes his mistake on a phenomenon that has been experienced in the past or whose effect continues today, shows that it is an emotion of evaluation. Since the activating aspect of the emotions will be backward dysfunctional in regret, this incentive aspect manifests itself in the direction of preventing the repetition of the regretful situation in the future. Thus, a sad situation in the past will pave the way for a moral evolution from negative to posi-tive, from destructive to constructive. In this article, the nature, value, and functionality of the regret will be analyzed and interpreted from a philosophical point of view, taking into account the principles of emotion ethics, and its conceptual and theoretical framework.

Cosmopolitan state citizenship: realistic utopias and their limits

ABSTRACT In this Comment, I focus on the state-based approach to citizenship and global justice adopted by Christine Hobden in Citizenship in a Globalised World. I briefly reconstruct the methodological justification Hobden provides before identifying what I take to be innovative in this approach, and the contribution Hobden makes to extant debates between nationalist and cosmopolitan conceptions of justice and responsibility. I then consider the limitations of a state-based approach, in particular, questioning the extent to which the public authority necessary for the protection of equal moral freedom should be conflated with sovereign states. I conclude by gesturing towards the ways that Hobden’s account can provide guidance on global justice beyond and without the state.

Packaging, Persuasion and Propaganda: Popular Preaching and Islamic Counter-publics in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Indonesia’s Islamic counter-publics have entered a new phase. Dominant definitions of the counter-public emphasise its reliance upon modes of publicity and public deliberation that conflict with dominant ones. In contemporary Indonesia, however, the practice of contemporary counter-public preachers requires a new definition. Preachers linked to Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), such as Felix Siauw and Fuadh Naim, do not counter-position in relation to popular culture, but appropriate it to reach broader audiences. Where popular culture might suggest an ethic of freedom or liberal sociability, such cultural forms are appropriated alongside messages that explicitly proscribe those liberal meanings. Contemporary counter-public preachers appropriate the symbolic repertoires of multiculturalism such as Javanese puppetry and poetry, as well as the images and music of the Korean Wave, yet do so to critique emergent liberal interpretations. These strategies are connected to contemporary politics, for both preachers have been long-time devotees of the pro-Khilafah cause that has recently been banned from public activity by the Indonesian government. The appropriation strategy suits the current moment, when dissimulation is a necessary element of practice for preachers who support the cause. In other words, they rebrand HTI by packaging almost everything with persuasive purpose to propagate Islamist ideology.

Toward Sustainable Wellbeing: Advances in Contemporary Concepts

Sustainability and wellbeing are two key global policy priorities, which despite considerable overlap, are invariably isolated. In wellbeing, the importance of social dimensions is an emergent conclusion, but recognition of the environment and nature is embryonic. In sustainability, wellbeing remains poorly characterized. Despite some procedural advantages, in practice, a continued ambiguity risks compromising both goals, and improved conceptual integration is therefore necessary. In this review article, key contemporary wellbeing accounts are considered, including preferences, needs, capabilities, happiness, psychological wellbeing, and physical wellness. Wellbeing literature suggests that a holistic multidimensional account is strongly supported, that is context- and value-dependent, with a prominent role for social and relational dimensions. A transdisciplinary systems thinking approach is appropriate to integrate from the individualism characteristic of wellbeing, to the interdependent human and environmental systems of sustainability. It is recognized that both wellbeing and sustainability are complex and value-laden, requiring the surfacing of values and ethics. A synthesis of the two branches of literature asserts four fundamental lenses: the framing of growth and change; social justice; the ethics of freedom; and the value of nature. The conceptual synthesis both platforms the relational approach of “care,” and underlines the imperative to reconsider the place of consumption. An integrated “sustainable wellbeing” offers the potential for win-win outcomes, in transformation to a flourishing of human wellbeing and the natural world.

"She Did What She Liked!": Ethics of Freedom and Desire in Henry James's "Daisy Miller"

"She Did What She Liked!": Ethics of Freedom and Desire in Henry James's "Daisy Miller"

Kriminalisasi Jarimah Liwath Melalui Qanun Jinayah Sebagai Upaya Mengendalikan Kebebasan Amoral Manusia

This study discusses the limitations of the freedom of will of every community, because everyone's freedom must be limited when dealing with the interests of state security, public order, the human rights of others with a balance of morals and religious values. The arrest of the perpetrators of jarimah liwath in Aceh indicates that these homosexuals still exist even though the Qanun Jinayah has been enacted. Prior to the enactment of this qanun, these people were supported by the Violet Gray institution which tried to promote the rights of homosexuals in Aceh, but in the end they were expelled from Aceh. The problem discussed is how to regulate the Qanun Jinayah regarding Homosexuals in terms of the aspect of moral freedom of the Acehnese people. This research is a literature study using a normative approach which is then explained descriptively. The results of this study explain that the regulation of the Qanun Jinayah against the criminalization of homosexual acts when viewed from the aspect of the moral freedom of the Acehnese people is very appropriate. This can be seen from the formulation of jarimah liwath in Qanun Jinayah with the aim of providing protection to morals. Morality and morality are very close. The people of Aceh are born into a Muslim majority. And Islam strongly rejects the immoral behavior of homosexuals, which is very dangerous for damage and not maintaining the dignity of humans and their descendants.

Социальные вычисления и происхождение мо­ральных норм

The author proposes a conception in which society and a person are understood as a nested computing system of a multi-agent architecture. The ‘Computational’ as a con­cept extends beyond the Turing machine and is considered as the ability to compute and predict statistical distributions that best match the characteristics of the external en­vironment to achieve the optimal value of an assumed control variable. Society induces the rules of behavior in agents similarly to the way by which a magnetic field induces a current in a moving conductor. Induction is carried out by selecting the patterns of be­havior empirically derived by individuals and certifying the patterns that are most use­ful for achieving the target indicators of the system. Certified rules are perceived by in­dividuals as, on the one hand, immanent to them, and on the other, as generally allow­ing for their violation, since both individual agents and the whole society are statistical machines. The objective probability of non-compliance with a rule is perceived as moral freedom, and hormonal reinforcement of adherence to the general rule is per­ceived as a sense of moral duty. The computational approach to morality overcomes the inductivism of naturalistic and utilitarian theories, and at the same time scientifi­cally explains the ‘transcendentality’ of moral law, without resorting to idealistic meta­physics, as does Kantian deontism.

Genesis of Moral Freedom in Kant

In Kant’s writings, we can discover four key moments in the realization of moral freedom: i) The original possibility of being free, ii) The act described by Kant as radical evil, iii) The opposite act, that is, an inner conversion to good, and, finally, iv) The long process of the self-development of virtue extending to immortality. There are further issues such as the double concept of moral evil, and practical temporality. Moral freedom is originally located (and presupposed in Kant’s transcendental deduction) in the individual, her decisions, and the maxims or principles that guide her actions, even though a community (as both a „kingdom of ends” and social reality) provides the scope wherein all this takes place and its socially and historically-situated shapes. This paper tries to systematize these crucial stages of Kant’s moral philosophy with the focus on the concept of virtue.

Foucault and Chomsky on Grammar and Governmentality

Abstract This essay explores the use of the notions of grammar and governmentality in the work of Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky. The goal is to exhibit the contrast but also mutual influence of these thinkers. Chomsky places his own linguistic theory in what he calls a tradition of Cartesian linguistics. Foucault’s presents an archaeology of general grammar in the French Classical Era. Chomsky and Foucault equally posit principles of governmentality. Both differ in terms of what they think the study of language brings to our understanding of ethical and political freedom. Governmental structure and grammatical structure, for Foucault, are always conventional, rather than essential – merely expressions of power dynamics. For Chomsky, the innate and natural human universality implied by underlying structures, in contrast, intimates a path to freedom from governmental coercion and oppression.

Revisiting Raz: A Reply

De vuelta a Raz: una réplica En Judging Positivism, sostengo que Joseph Raz cambió su posición en el tiempo y que esos cambios produjeron inconsistencias e incoherencias en su posición madura. La premisa clave que pone en marcha el argumento es la siguiente: la concepción de sistemas jurídicos en Practical Reason and Norms (PRN) está basada en, y depende de, la tesis de que jueces tienen un deber de aplicar el derecho. Tratase de una concepción positivista del derecho que deriva de una visión positivista del trabajo del juez. Problemas surgen para Raz cuando él introduce elementos morales en su concepción positivista de derecho. En particular, analizo las dificultades que Raz encuentra cuando introduce una teoría moral de la aplicación del derecho en Ethics in the Public Domain (EPD), y una teoría moralmente cargada de la autoridad en Morality of Freedom (MF). André Coelho y Jorge Fabra-Zamora cuestionan mi crítica a los argumentos de Raz sobre la aplicación del derecho, mientras Thomas Bustamante plantea sus comentarios en mi critica de la autoridad en Raz. Al contestar a mis críticos, revisito mi interpretación de PRN, al paso que exploro las premisas fundacionales en discusión en estos debates. Rechazo la posibilidad de que todas presuposiciones fundacionales son igualmente valiosas: el análisis conceptual no normativo no es, en mi opinión, una metodología viable si se quiere contestar las cuestiones planteadas por Raz y Hart. Asimismo, investigo las dificultades que la teoría de la autoridad de Raz encuentra.

Natural relativism in lieu of moral absolutism

Natural relativism in lieu of moral absolutism

“Metaphysics about Metaphysics.” Kant on Theoretical, Practical and Practico-Theoretical Metaphysics

The essay investigates the relation between metaphysics and practical philosophy in Kant by reconstructing Kant‘s systematic typology of metaphysics as developed in his critical writings. Section 1 deals with Kant’s rigorous reduction of philosophy to metaphysics. The focus here is on the epistemological turn effectuated by Kant with regard to metaphysics (theoretical metaphysics). Section 2 is concerned with Kant’s reconceptualization of (pure) practical philosophy as a metaphysics sui generis. At the center stands here Kant’s supplementation of the metaphysics of nature through a metaphysics of morals based on moral freedom (practical metaphysics). Section 3 addresses the merging of theoretical and practical metaphysics in Kant. The focus here lies on Kant’s introduction of a novel, practically validated form of (quasi-)theoretical metaphysics (practico-theoretical metaphysics). Throughout the essay combines an analytic interest in the forms and functions of metaphysics in Kant with a systematic interest in the practical and practico-theoretical transformation of previously theoretical metaphysics in Kant, which morphs from a doctrine of the objects of nature through a doctrine of the laws of freedom to a doctrine of wisdom regarding the supersensible.

Strict Liability and Necessity in Grotius, Pufendorf, Smith, Kant, and Beyond

Abstract This article compares the views of Grotius and subsequent authors on the doctrines of necessity and strict liability. This comparison takes place at two levels. On the one hand, there is a comparison of the views of Grotius with those of Pufendorf, Smith, Kant and recent Kantian authors. On the other hand, there is a comparison between the doctrines of necessity and strict liability. This exercise leads to the conclusion that strict liability does not have to be a mere matter of choice opted for by positive law, but in some instances can also be thought of as a requirement of a private law framework expressing the fundamental moral equal freedom of man.

A Rabbi of One's Own? Navigating Religious Authority and Ethical Freedom in Everyday Judaism

ABSTRACTThis article examines the varying ways religious devotees utilize, negotiate, embrace, and reject religious authorities in their everyday lives. Ethnographically exploring the ways that Orthodox Jews share reproductive decisions with rabbinic authorities, I demonstrate how some sanctify rabbinic rulings, while others dismiss them, or continue to “shop around” until they find a rabbinic opinion that resonates with their personal desires. These negotiations of religious authority and ethical freedom are worked out across a biographical trajectory, opening new possibilities to explore how religious authority fluctuates and changes over the life course. I argue that analysis of engagement with rabbis without attention to the inner diversity of interpretations and practices perpetuates a hegemonic and overly harmonious picture of religious authority. Highlighting these variations, I show how the process of consultation was more significant than mere submission to religious rulings. Religious consultation, in itself, then constitutes a significant node for making an ethical Jewish life. Attending to these aspects of religious authority has great potential to further develop and contextualize the field of ethical freedom while complicating binary models of submission versus resistance. My approach demonstrates the need to broaden our anthropological tools to better understand the ways individuals share everyday decisions with mediators of authoritative knowledge. [religious authority, ethics, reproduction, gender, Judaism]

The Ambivalence of the Scientific Ethos Is Irresistible

Ambivalence of the scientific ethos (R. Merton) today is still a topical issue under the escalation of contradictions between science and society. The autonomy of science, the solidarity of scientists in the face of internal and external challenges are the issues decisions of which are burdened by a number of antinomies such as “profession – vocation”, “individual – collective” and “a priori – a posteriori”. Is it possible to rid the ethics of science, designed to develop and represent moral norms for the scientific community, from this ambivalence? The article offers a sketch of the ethics of science, combining virtue epistemology with some ideas of J. Rawls and W. Pareto. It shows that the ethical assessment is irreparably present in the structure of roles and statuses in the scientific community, and epistemic virtues are intertwined with moral ones. In terms of this, ambivalence is a form of problematization inherent in any ethical discourse. Hence the task of the ethics of science is not to prescribe norms of behavior to a particular agent, but to explicate conditions of moral freedom.

The Care of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in Romania: Between Politics and Theology

ABSTRACT The abuses of persons with intellectual disabilities in Romania’s state institutions has been in the attention of European human rights system for many years. Still despite the best efforts put into changing this deplorable situation nothing changed. The article argues that there are two main reasons for the unsuccessful attempts made to improve the care of persons with intellectual disabilities in Romania. On the one hand, the notion of human rights at the heart of the European vision does not resonate well with the dominant ethical discourse issuing from the Orthodox Church. On the other hand, the main paradigm of Orthodox theology either implies they are defective – because they lack the consciousness and the moral freedom needed to attain deification (the very goal of their existence) – or sees them as instruments for spiritual healing and deification of their carers.