Moral Decency Research Articles

Maîtrise esthétique de la passion féminine. Fonctionnement topique du pavillon dans La Princesse de Clèves.

When La Princesse de Cleves was published in 1678 it was celebrated as a literary achievement by some readers but criticized by others, in particular by some of the most reknowned and influential critiques of the time Jean-Baptiste Henri du Trousset Valincour and Roger de Bussy-Rabutin, as an attack on the ideals of plausibility and moral decency. It was notably the two scenes known as “The Confession” and “The Dream”, both taking place in the pavilion at the Cleves estate La Coulommiers, that appeared indecent and implausible in the eyes of the two critiques. Taking the multiple symbolique connotations of the pavilion as a starting point, this article will argue that the accusations of implausibility and indecency should be understood as ideological reactions to the novel's negociations of desire, aesthetics and power.

Living with Nietzsche: what the great "immoralist" has to teach us

Friedrich Nietzsche is one of most popular and controversial philosophers of last 150 years. Narcissistic, idiosyncratic, hyperbolic, irreverent-never has a philosopher been appropriated, deconstructed, and scrutinized by such a disparate array of groups, movements, and schools of thought. Adored by many for his ideas and iconoclastic style, he is also vilified for his lack of rigor, apparent cruelty, and disdain for moral decency. In Living with Nietzsche, Solomon suggests that we read Nietzsche from a very different point of view, as a provocative writer who means to transform way we view our lives. This means taking Nietzsche personally. Rather than focus on true Nietzsche or trying to determine what Nietzsche really meant by his seemingly random and often contradictory pronouncements about the Big Questions of philosophy, Solomon reminds us that Nietzsche is not a philosopher of abstract ideas but rather of dazzling personal insight, provocative challenge, incisive personal probe. He does not try to reveal eternal verities but he does powerfully affect his readers, goading them to see themselves in new and different ways. It is Nietzsche's compelling invitation to self-scrutiny that fascinates us, engages us, and guides us to a inner life. Ultimately, Solomon argues, Nietzsche is an example as well as a promulgator of passionate inwardness, a life distinguished by its rich passions, exquisite taste, and a sense of personal elegance and excellence.

The Attacks of 9/11: Evidence of a Clash of Religions?

President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have repeatedly declared that the coalition war in Afghanistan is not a war against Islam. Islam, however, was a feature of the events of 11 September 2001 and of the events that followed. Should the conflict between the United States and Osama bin Laden and between the coalition forces and the Taliban be seen as an example of a conflict between two religious traditions in the way Professor Samuel Huntington prophesied in his seminal Clash of Civilizations essay? (1) This article aims to unravel some of the religious background to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on what began as a perfect day in September in New York and Washington. (2) It looks too at the religious background to events that have followed on from those attacks. Much of the latter part of the article will be devoted to examining any perceived from the Muslim point of view in an attempt to generate a better understanding of how at least some Muslims view the West in general and America in particular. It will look, again from the Muslim point of view, at how any perception of a clash might be either ameliorated or neutralized. Religious Motivation of the Terrorists should pray, you should fast. You should ask God for guidance, you should ask God for help....Continue to recite the [Koran]. Purify your heart and clean it from all earthly matters. So read the hand-written instructions to the hijackers who carried out their suicide missions by flying into the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon on 11 September 2001. Their task was perceived as a religious one. instructions continued: The time of fun and waste has gone. time of judgment has arrived.... You will be entering paradise. You will be entering the happiest life, everlasting (3) These instructions demonstrate how--for the writer and for the hijackers themselves--the suicide mission was seen as a religious one. first four pages of the hijackers' instructions recalled incidents in Islamic history, particularly incidents of Muhammad triumphing against adversaries. On the fifth and last page, guidance was given about what to do on entering the plane. hijacker was asked to pray, Allah, open all doors for me. Oh Allah who answers prayers and answers those who ask you, I am asking for your help. Allah, I trust in you. Allah, I myself in your hands.... There is no God but Allah, I being a sinner. We are of Allah and to Allah we return. (4) In 1990 Iraq Kuwait and so began the Gulf War. A coalition of Muslim Middle Eastern and American, British, and other nations joined together to drive out Saddam Hussein's army. For some Arab Muslims, bin Laden included, this period was classed as al amza, the crisis. It was a crisis for at least two reasons: first, it involved Muslim Arabs fighting other Muslim Arabs; second, it involved American and other non-Arab forces entering Saudi territory. To understand why this second reason was seen as problematic, one has to understand that for a Muslim the Saudi city of Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, is a holy city. Indeed, it is so holy that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter it. Some of that holiness is seen by some Muslims to spread through the whole country of Saudi Arabia. To have non-Muslim soldiers enter the country, and particularly to do so in order to help one Muslim country fight against another Muslim country, was seen as offensive. America and its allies, in the eyes of some fundamentalist Muslims, represent the very opposite of what Islam stands for. Islam is seen to stand for solidarity among Muslim peoples; it is seen to stand for moral decency, for obedience to Allah and the precepts of Allah found in Islam's holy book, the Koran, and in the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, the sunnah. fundamentalist Muslim saw his holy land of Saudi Arabia invaded by troops whose home country represented, as he saw it, the very opposite of the Muslim way of life. …

Comments on Worsfold’s Autonomy and Decency

In beginning this commentary on Professor Worsfold’s excellent paper, “Autonomy and Decency in 21st-Century Education,” I must first congratulate him on nearly finishing his theoretical investigation of moral decency, which he began over twenty years ago. This paper finally brings to full view the fundamental problem of autonomy: a problem which has been evident in his earlier work, but which he has never so fully addressed.

On Making Moral Citizens

How will moral citizens require to be morally educated for life in the 21st century? Taking my cue from Martha Nussbaum’s Cultivating Humanity, I want to argue that moral citizens will require a moral education in the ethics that undergird Nussbaum’s three desiderata of the education of citizens, namely, the ability to engage in self-critical examination, allegiance to the ideal of world citizenship, and the development of what Nussbaum calls the narrative imagination. Embedded in these three dimensions of the education of citizens is, I believe, a conception of moral decency that is, when properly construed, designed to make educated citizens moral citizens.

Christianity and Human Rights

The historic relationship between Christianity and human rights is an ambiguous one. For hundreds of years the Christian Church actively promoted religious intolerance and persecuted those who failed to accept its moral values and customs. Many of these values and practices are today rejected as contrary to a human rights culture and moral decency. Max Stackhouse argues that while “[t]he deep roots of human rights ideals are rooted nowhere else than in the biblical tradition,” these values “remained a minority tradition (within the Church) for centuries.” James Woods, in turn, argues that “religion and freedom have not been natural allies.”The affirmation of human rights emerged painfully and belatedly in the Christian Church. The “deep biblical roots of human rights ideals” have, however, periodically been acknowledged and retrieved throughout the history of the church in an attempt to correct wrongs, repudiate theological support for abuses, and to pursue a more humane society. The history of the emergence of human rights within the Western Christian tradition, recognises that religions develop in interaction with other social and cultural forces in society. I argue in what follows that the relationship between Christianity and the human rights tradition can only enrich society to the extent that the relationship is sustained by mutual critique and correction.

Ethical Perspectives on the Postmodern Communications Leviathan

Advertising and other forms of promotional activity have proliferated to such an extent that they may constitute a form of social pollution (Kitchen, 1994). The quantity and tone of communications to which consumers are exposed may have a subtle but pervasive effect on the social ecology of the developed world. Not only are Marketing Communications delivered in unprecedented quantities (Kitchen, 1994); but their tone is increasingly difficult to categorise in the Postmodern Marketing era (Brown, 1994). Notably, there has been very little research conducted on this seeming "Leviathan" (Kitchen, 1994, after Hobbes, 1651) effect. Ethical concerns of professional marketing bodies such as the MRS and CIM are focussed on the conduct of professionals with regard to law and notions of moral decency in human exchange relationships (see MRS code of conduct, ASA and IBA guidelines). There is less emphasis on the ethical implications for society of the totality of Marketing Communication activities. This paper examines the distinctively Postmodern concept of the Communications Leviathan and discusses contemporary ethical issues, drawing perspectives where possible from Postmodern critical theory, Enlightenment philosophy, cognitive psychology and classical ethical works of Plato and Aristotle.

Deception and Moral Decency

Deception and Moral Decency

Deception and Moral Decency

Deception and Moral Decency

Can paleopathology provide evidence for “compassion”?

Paleopathological analyses of skeletal remains have provided significant information about diet and health in prehistoric populations. A number of individuals have been recovered whose remains show evidence of impairments that would have precluded "normal" functioning, resulting in a disability. The most famous example is Shanidar I; more recent discoveries include the Romito 2 dwarf from Italy and a boy with spina bifida from the Windover site in Florida. These finds have been interpreted by some writers as evidence for compassion and "moral decency" among the other members of the community, who would have had to support these nonproductive individuals. However, these interpretations are based on a number of implicit assumptions: about the number of nonproductive members normally present in any population, about the abilities of disabled individuals to contribute to society, about the treatment of disabled individuals by other members of the group, and about the "moral rightness" of facilitating the survival of a disabled individual under all circumstances. These assumptions are not justified by the evidence from the archeological record or by reference to ethnographic analogy. A tendency to focus on physical traits as the sole measure of productive ability, images of Rousseau's "noble savage" transported to the past, and unexamined beliefs about the disabled in modern societies have influenced these archeological interpretations. We are not justified in drawing conclusions either about the quality of life for disabled individuals in the past or about the motives or attitudes of the rest of the community from skeletal evidence of physical impairment.

Childhood Competence and Autonomy

Previous articleNext article No AccessChildhood Competence and AutonomyFerdinand SchoemanFerdinand Schoeman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Legal Studies Volume 12, Number 2Jun., 1983 Sponsored by The University of Chicago Law School Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/467724 Views: 14Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1983 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Kay Mathiesen The Internet, children, and privacy: the case against parental monitoring, Ethics and Information Technology 15, no.44 (Jul 2013): 263–274.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-013-9323-4Robert Noggle For the Benefit of Another: Children, Moral Decency, and Non-therapeutic Medical Procedures, HEC Forum 25, no.44 (Nov 2013): 289–310.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-013-9229-xKay Mathiesen The Internet, Children, and Privacy: The Case Against Parental Monitoring, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2012).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2150310

The Status of the Jews in the Soviet Union

DURING the past quarter-century, enlightened public opinion through out the world has become keenly sensitive to the treatment of minorities as a barometer of moral decency and social sanity. The awesome experiences of this period have drawn particular attention to the symbolic and actual position of the Jewish minority. In this light, the status of the Jews in the Soviet Union warrants special concern. The situation of Soviet Jews can be comprehended primarily within the framework of Soviet nationalities policy. That policy, as reflected in Commu nist party directives, the Soviet Constitution and public law, is based on the ideological acceptance of the concept of national self-determination and on the legal recognition of the right of all nationalities within Soviet borders to cultural freedom. Actual Soviet policy toward the Jews clearly violates these principles. It is tantamount to a policy of discrimination for it denies to the Jews such ethnic-cultural rights as are generally accorded all other Soviet nationalities.