Maxim Of Action Research Articles

Duty Governing Human Actions: To Act Because It Is Righteous

It can be claimed that humans have at least three basic instincts: the instincts of selfishness, of belongingness and of duty. Selfishness and belongingness are in focus in economic and sociological studies. Duty has been locked into practical philosophy and, more recently, has been used in organizational justice studies. The paper focuses on duty and explores the instinct of duty by defining it, indicating how it works, and examining its function and origin. This is accomplished by extracting knowledge from a literature review, describing its origin in Kantian moral thinking and extracting some implications of duty, and through case studies analysing the actions of three persons. Duty is found when an individual applies his/her Weltanschauung, containing maxims of action. Duty varies according to the individual, the person with whom the individual is dealing (the ‘exchange person’), the situation and the environment.

За писи по естественному праву Файерабенда и их значение длякантоведения. Предисловие к публикации

Natural Law Notes of Feyerabend is one of the most important sources by the research of ethical and juridical views of Kant. Dating back to 1784 they distinctly demonstrate that the basic principles of Kant’s philosophy of right are not a late production of the philosopher, but they have been formed already in the middle of 80’s of 18th century. Therewith we can use this lectures notes for the studies of Kant’s moral philosophy too, because of their closeness to the Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals, what can help us to understand some not clear aspects of Kant’s ethical thought. One of such questions is the question of moral motivation, and namely how we can not only know, what we have to do according to the moral law, but also actually want do it? As in his published writings Kant concludes in the Introduction of Natural Law Notes that human will itself can not be in complete agreement with the moral law, because objective motive (that is the moral law alone) for this will isn’t identical with subjective ones (that are maxims of action). That is why it must be forced to follow the moral law and its commandments are for it imperatives. But in order not to distort autonomy of will, this force should come from the will itself. Such a force according to Kant is possible, if the will would force itself to action with an idea of an complete good will (what means such a will which is always in accordance with the moral law), which is inherent in God alone. With the article is enclosed the translation of a small fragment of Introduction to the Natural Law Feyerabend.

Liberation and dependency: a theological reading of social sciences in Latin America

Introduction: In the early 1970s, social movements directed Latin American theology to a creative process of deprivatization of the Christian faith, reconfiguring - from the community practices of liberation and their holistic implications - the theoretical exercise concerning its political and social commitment. Consequently, the notion of liberation began to be addressed by the opposite equivalent of dependency within the methodological framework of the biblical-theological approach. Objective: To understand the meaning of the opposite correlation between liberation and dependency from their specificities in accordance with the vision of liberation intellectuals, and identify the way in which dependency was appropriate to respond to the responsive and socio-analytical theoretical framework of these intellectuals, linking the reading of reality to the Latin American community practice. Methods: Historical and systematic research, exploratory, under an analytical-descriptive orientation, organized from conceptual schemes. Results: Based on the finding regarding the theoretical refraction of dependency through liberation, the concept emerges as the theological interpretation of an entire theoretical field taken indistinctly, namely the Dependency Theory. Conclusion: The opposite correlation between dependency and liberation as a finding that reveals the similarity between the real that is theorized (dependency) and the hypothetical conceptualization of maxims of action (liberation), comprehended within the general theory of anti-imperialism, resulted in an interdisciplinary theological reflection.

Contradiction and Consent in Kant’s Ethics

Let us examine the contradiction test for morally permissible maxims of action, which Kant associates with the formula of universal law in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. We will not take up the details of precisely how the contradiction test should be interpreted. Instead, after considering some problems with the contradiction test, we will determine whether or not the contradiction test is needed and why Kant uses the test if it is so problematic. Could Kant simply avoid problems with the contradiction test by using the formula of humanity instead to decide what is right and wrong, as some recent writers on Kant, such as Derek Parfit and Barbara Herman, would prefer? As we will see, the formula of humanity in fact cannot be separated from the contradiction test without compromising some of Kant’s deepest commitments. In particular, Kant’s views about the nature of autonomy and happiness require him to use the contradiction test as his criterion of right and wrong, and prevent him from using the formula of humanity independently of the contradiction test.

Can There Be ‘Unprincipled Virtue’? Comments on Nomy Arpaly

In her book, Unprincipled Virtue, Nomy Arpaly is suspicious of reflective endorsement or deliberative rationality views of agency, those which tie the possibility of responsibility and moral blame to the conscious exercise of deliberation and reflection, and which require as a condition of blame- or praise- worthiness an agent's explicit commitment to ethical principles. I am in sympathy with her attack on standard autonomy theories, but argue that she confuses the phenomenon of unknowing and unreflective responsiveness to the right-making features of an action with incomplete and merely provisional commitment to principles and maxims of action, and argue that she is often arguing against straw men. I also argue that she has misinterpreted the fascinating literary examples she adduces to make her case.

Maxims and Virtues

Perhaps the most fundamental and distinctive idea of Kantian moral psychology is that no behavior can count as action unless it is performed on a subjective practical principle, or a maxim of action. The maxim is supposed to provide the target of moral assessment of all actions, whether this assessment is prospective (as it is in deliberation) or retrospective. The presence of a maxim is also supposed to illuminate how it is that agents are active in, hence responsible for, the peculiar species of events we call actions. To put the point roughly, agents are the sources of their actions in that they have in some sense affirmed or endorsed the maxims of these actions.