Moral Outlook Research Articles

WORDS OF ANCESTORS – MASTERPIECES OF KAZAKH WORD ART

The article highlights the issues of scientific preparation and publication of the 100- volumes of Kazakh folklore "Word ancestors", published in the period 2004-2013, including issues of genre classification of folklore texts, principles of selection and preparation of each volume, as well as the place of this priceless spiritual heritage in the world’s culture. Kazakh folklore – is a syncretic literary art, originating from ancient times and representing folk art-aesthetic, philosophical, moral and ethical outlook. In recent years, scientific editions of folk literature, publications for children and a wide range of readers have been published, that had been collected from numerous handwritten patterns of folklore creativity which is an invaluable spiritual heritage people. At the same time we should mention that folklore collections published in the 90th - early 2000 s, covered only a small part of the rich folk heritage of Kazakhs. One of the main reasons for this was the pro-communist ideology of the Soviet political system that prevented from the development of national cultures. For this reason, hundreds of folklore religious works, works with the sence of some ethnic patriotism, freedom and independence have not been included into scientific turn over and library circulation. However those works that have been published in the Soviet period, underwent censorship and abbreviations. The main purpose of the publication was the idea of demonstrating not only the richness of Kazakh folk literature, but also implementation of publication in accordance with modern requirements of philological science, also it was important to visibly show the antiquity of the origin of national culture.

ОГЛЯД ЛІТЕРАТУРНИХ ДЖЕРЕЛ З ПРОБЛЕМ РОЗВИТКУ МОРАЛЬНО-ДУХОВНОГО СВІТОГЛЯДУ МАЙБУТНІХ ХОРЕОГРАФІВ: ТЕОРЕТИЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article deals with the spiritual and moral values that guide the seekers to develop the spiritual and moral outlook of the individual, which will help in life and in the work for professional growth. The main educational problems during the development of the spiritual and moral worldview of the choreographic education seekers in the modern institution of higher pedagogical education are identified, which will allow to correct the work in carrying out educational activities aimed at both the individual and his professional growth. The literature of modern Ukrainian and foreign scholars such as: I. Bekh, L. Vygotsky, R. Gipson, L. Moskalyova, G. Shevchenko, E. Pomitkin, E. Wilson is analyzed. worldview of choreographic education seekers. " After all, spirituality and morality exist in a coherent combination, which gives the opportunity to generate an inseparable and harmonious personality. Through the use of supporting literature, we have revealed the theoretical aspects of the development of the spiritual and moral outlook of student youth, namely future choreographers, who will help to supplement the teaching of choreographic disciplines. The article describes the peculiarities of realization of the main tasks in the development of the spiritual and moral outlook of the personality of the choreographic education seeker in a higher pedagogical educational institution. We paid special attention to the development of the spiritual and moral outlook of the future choreographer as an important quality of becoming a professional personality. But characterized by mythological, philosophical, religious, scientific, artistic worldviews. Where the types of worldviews we have developed lead to the development of creativity, spiritual balance and the maintenance of an internal order that is closely linked to the development of any worldview that directly leads to continuous growth and the acquisition of certain professional experience. Keywords: spirituality, morality, outlook, spiritual and moral outlook.

Heidegger's Moral Ontology by James Reid

Reviewed by: Heidegger's Moral Ontology by James Reid Bruce Ballard REID, James. Heidegger's Moral Ontology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Cloth, $105.00 Those who occupy the minority position often exaggerate their predicament. But in this case Reid need not go beyond the actual situation, for it looks dire. He wants to show that there is in Heidegger a forceful and compelling ethics implicit to his early work (the Lecture courses into Sein und Zeit). He is very much aware of the special difficulties his project faces, including, but not limited to, the fact of his offering a philosophy of debatable significance, the fact of Heidegger's backing the Nazi regime, and the fact that Heidegger denies writing and ethics. So Reid must tease out the ethical strands in Heidegger. Some of the richest sources of an ethics are found in Heidegger's critiques. Even an apparently nonmoral topic like Heidegger's critique of science assumes a number of background ethical conceptions, among which are that scientific experimenters be honest about their results and procedure. So ethics is a necessary condition for science. By making care preeminent Heidegger avoids scientism. This is certainly true of inauthenticity, if negatively. Heidegger's inauthentic person is curious to a fault, chatters idly, and is ready to conform his or her thought and conduct to the social norm. By contrast, the authentic person is decisive, courageous in the face of death, and ready to be moved by conscience. Authenticity includes facing up to the challenges of life, living up to your unique life, fully conscious that it must end. This awareness of the possibility of no more possibilities helps each one fasten on the possibilities that matter, and one returns to life under this understanding with sober joy. Heidegger scholars concur about authenticity as a central ethical notion. Yet there does not seem to be a duty to be authentic. A main virtue of authenticity is its helpfulness doing ontology. Reid clearly differentiates Heidegger's ethics from Kant's universal ethics and, in fact, from any essentialist notion. In this connection, Heidegger sounds quite existentialist. I have five reservations with respect to this book. First of all, Heidegger never claimed to write an ethics. In fact, he expressly says he is not writing an ethics. Rather, he was at pains to keep his readers to ontology. This should probably weigh more with Reid than it appears to. Second, as Reid notes, Heidegger's gravitation toward the Nazi party does not inspire confidence in his moral outlook. Despite later criticisms of the party, his time as the Nazi rector of his own university shows a heartfelt and unconditional allegiance to National Socialism. On Alasdair MacIntyre's account, it is Heidegger's moral errors that led him to National Socialism. Two kinds of error reflect a moral deficit for Heidegger. One error was to attribute philosophical motives quite foreign to the party. The moral origins of this error might include an uncritical overattachment to one's own point of view, intellectual sloth, or cowardice. A second error is to show insufficient concern for others' well-being. Since antisemitic measures were present in his administration, Heidegger notoriously failed this moral test. So, according to MacIntyre, we learn more about Heidegger's moral outlook from his failures than from latent allusions [End Page 625] from the early lectures. But to descry a latent ethics is probably possible for almost any philosophy. Third, attempts to discern a consistent and integrated ethics nearly a century after the philosopher in question (Heidegger and Marx are the examples here) must count as some evidence that there are no such fundamental ethical principles to be found. One is brought to mind the efforts of Marxists to supply an ethical frame for their politics through Neo-Kantianism, utilitarianism, Aristotelianism, Christianity (liberation theology), and so on, without success and fall back on the overlapping consensus. Fourth, Reid pictures Heidegger as a relativist without belief in any fixed human nature. Heidegger thereby loses a main anchor for ethics. Fifth, Heidegger's agnosticism is evident in his remarks on death. Needless to say, a world of arguments has been arrayed against unbelief. Reservations notwithstanding...

Psychoeducation and Philosophy in a Literature Class – the Case of "Five Hours with Mario" by Miguel Delibes

The paper presents a novel approach towards the analysis of a classic Spanish 20th century novel, Five Hours with Mario by Miguel Delibes. The author of the paper proposes two interpretative frameworks, of which The Moral Foundations Theory developed recently by Jonathan Haidt is the main one, and Karl Popper’s concept of the open and closed society, a complementary one. The interdisciplinary reading of Delibes’ masterpiece should help students and scholars revive and update their relationship to this worthwhile piece of fiction, as well as provide them with theoretical tools for an in-depth understanding of the differences between the moral outlook of liberals and conservatives, tools applicable both on the level of fiction, as well as in reality.

ОГЛЯД ЛІТЕРАТУРИ З ВИХОВНИХ ПРОБЛЕМ РОЗВИТКУ ДУХОВНО-МОРАЛЬНОГО СВІТОГЛЯДУ ЗДОБУВАЧІВ ХОРЕОГРАФІЧНОЇ ОСВІТИ: ТЕОРЕТИЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article deals with the spiritual and moral values that guide the seekers to develop the spiritual and moral outlook of the individual, which will help in life and in the work for professional growth. The main educational problems during the development of the spiritual and moral worldview of the choreographic education seekers in the modern institution of higher pedagogical education are identified, which will allow to correct the work in carrying out educational activities aimed at both the individual and his professional growth. The literature of modern Ukrainian and foreign scholars such as: I. Bekh, L. Vyhotskiy, R. Hipson, L. Moskalyova, G. Shevchenko, E. Pomitkin, E. Wilson is analyzed. worldview of the choreographic education seekers. After all, spirituality and morality exist in a coherent combination, which gives the opportunity to generate an inseparable and harmonious personality.Through the use of supporting literature, we have revealed the theoretical aspects of the development of the spiritual and moral outlook of student youth, namely future choreographers, who will help to supplement the teaching of choreographic disciplines.The article describes the peculiarities of realization of the main tasks in the development of the spiritual and moral outlook of the personality of the choreographic education seeker in a higher pedagogical educational institution. We paid special attention to the development of the spiritual and moral outlook of the future choreographer as an important quality of becoming a professional personality. But characterized by mythological, philosophical, religious, scientific, artistic worldviews. Where the types of worldviews we have developed lead to the development of creativity, spiritual balance and the maintenance of an internal order that is closely linked to the development of any worldview that directly leads to continuous growth and the acquisition of certain professional experience.

The Quest for Redemption: Central European Jewish Thought in Joseph Roth's Works by Rares G. Piloiu

Reviewed by: The Quest for Redemption: Central European Jewish Thought in Joseph Roth's Works by Rares G. Piloiu Carl Niekerk Rares G. Piloiu, The Quest for Redemption: Central European Jewish Thought in Joseph Roth's Works. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2018. 338 pp. Rares G. Piloiu's The Quest for Redemption offers a comprehensive study of Joseph Roth's fictional works, including a review of scholarship and some interesting side glances at Roth's journalism. The author argues for the centrality of Jewish thinking in Roth's work—in the form of a turn to tradition and a spiritual, at times mystical experience of authenticity and moral certainty lost in the modern, overly rational world. A central text for Piloiu is Roth's essay "Juden auf Wanderschaft" (1927), a text documenting Roth's confrontation with the primitive conditions under which many Jews lived in Eastern Europe and their remarkable spiritual resilience. Piloiu is interested in the notion of "redemption," understood, following Hasidic thinking, as an everyday, historical experience (43) that is at the same time mystical, religious, social, and also moral and individual (46–47). Faced with the unappealing alternatives of the bourgeoisie's assimilationist rationalism and an "emerging nationalism," Roth in his work promotes a notion of "redemption" that allows for "a more meaningful identification of the individual with the community and tradition" (51). The notion is admittedly vague, but Piloiu does make the convincing point that a similar turn to Jewish tradition can be found in texts by Rosenzweig, Buber, and, somewhat more distantly, Kafka, Freud, Benjamin, and Bloch, albeit in very different forms and shapes—nuances that sometimes get lost in his argument. How, for instance, does Austria exemplify the "order of redemption" (221) understood in a Hasidic sense? To me one of the key questions this study raises, but only implicitly, is how the model of redemption is linked to other images Roth invents to describe humankind's metaphysical homelessness—is there indeed one model underlying all of Roth's writings, or does his work rather offer a series of narratives, figures, and images all meant to illustrate the human condition but from a variety of perspectives? Is it indeed the case that modernity, rationalism, and secularization, in a world focused on the individual [End Page 99] but not the collective, are always and by necessity tied to each other? Or do Roth's fictional worlds, at times, also allude to modes of being modern that do respect diversity? Without a doubt, Piloiu's approach works well for certain texts. This goes for Hiob (1930), which is indeed a meditation on a man who, lured by the promises of modern society, leaves his homeland with his family, faces a series of major trials to eventually return to find peace and a spiritual home. Roth's Tarabas (1934) too can be read as the story of a protagonist who abandons a history of violence and undergoes a long process of redemption to eventually embrace tradition. But doesn't the same text also show how an investment in tradition and religion can lead to violence? It is the uncovering of a painting of the Virgin Mary that triggers the violence at the core of the text when the Jewish innkeeper in whose inn it is discovered is accused of having desecrated it, leading to what Piloiu describes as a "moment of collective psychosis" (158). The limits of the concept of "redemption" are particularly clear when one looks at the novel Radetzkymarsch (1932), of which Piloiu offers a reading I do not find very convincing (205–37). It is precisely the focus on "tradition" and the way the past is constructed (the story of the Hero of Solferino) and ideologically (ab)used in the service of empire that keeps the representatives of the second and third generations of the Trott a family from finding anything like authenticity or developing a moral outlook on life. Cannot Carl Joseph's heartbreaking love affair with Frau Slama be understood as an argument for a more modern attitude toward sexuality? Carl Joseph at the end of the novel indeed does act morally—he is killed seeking to provide his men with drinking...

The Rule of Law: Sociology or Normative Theory? An Afterword to Martti Koskenniemi’s Foreword

Abstract Martti Koskenniemi is correct to view Hugo Grotius as a thinker committed to the rule of law. But there is a crucial difference between Grotius’ and Koskenniemi’s respective concepts of the rule of law. Grotius’ concept of the rule of law is normative and requires a moral cognitivist outlook. Koskenniemi, on the other hand, holds a sociological concept of the rule of law. Koskenniemi is correct that, for the rule of law to find its ‘normative voice’, Grotius may well be of help. For this normative voice to make itself heard, however, it will have to rise above the sceptical reduction of the rule of law to normatively inert sociological facts.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POLISH COLONY OF PYSHIVKA IN THE SPRING 1944 IN THE REFLECTION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE PEOPLE’S STORY TRADITION

Summary. The purpose of the study is to discover how the Ukrainian folk-narrative tradition in the records of the end of the 20th century – the beginning of the 21st century reflects and comprehends one of the numerous Polish-Ukrainian armed conflicts of the mid-twentieth century – the destruction by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the spring of 1944 of the Polish colony Pyshivka. To track how respondents of all ages, genders, cultural and educational backgrounds, ideological and political beliefs and moral values view this event. Also, to find out how their historical memory correlates with the features of Ukrainian-Polish socio-political, economic, economic and moral outlook in the period of Ukrainian independence. The methodological basis is the method of hermeneutics as an art of understanding textual discourse, as well as as commenting on and interpreting a work of art through a mental-analytical and intuitive comprehension of its ideological, artistic, psycho-emotional sense. And also a historical method of research, which is to study the chronological sequence of occurrence, formation and development of events, phenomena or other objects, which contributes to an in-depth understanding of their essence. Scientific novelty For the first time in Ukrainian folklore science and historical science the original source database was collected, and on the basis of it the genesis and dynamics of the epic-historical memory of the local people are analyzed about the unexplored moment of past Polish-Ukrainian confrontation. At the same time, it is traced how this memory influences the formation of the outlook-value and behavioral characteristics of this environment. We conclude that comprehension by the narrative tradition of the destruction of Pyshivka takes place in two planes- socio-political, militaristic on the one hand, and Christian-moral humanistic on the other. There is a tendency that the farther the narrators are from the realities of national liberation struggl not being eyewitnesses themselves the less is their interested in it from print or other sources, so their comprehension becomes more humanistic and moral. They sincerely regret what happened, show a subconscious complex of guilt, and hence focus more on peaceful, friendly attitude to war.

A Psychoanalytic Analysis of Mohamed Suleiman’s Kiu

ABSTRACTThis paper attempts to read Mohamed Suleiman Mohamed’s novel Kiu through the psychoanalytical lenses. It demonstrates how psychoanalysis theory has been utilised in the analysis of the novel. The paper critically investigates how the tripartite parts of the psyche that motivate humans to act in different ways functions. It analyses how the author uses monologues, inner dialogues and dreams that portray the subconscious to build his characters and define their traits, and how any number of character traits are used to advance different themes in the novel. The paper also addresses how the presentation of ideas and narrative styles are used to capture the author’s psychic unconsciousness and his worldview of life and actions in society, perspectives on human feelings and how dreams in the novel relate to psychoanalytical theory. The paper also points out how the reader and the critic are affected by texts that they read. The paper is premised on an analysis of moral states and outlooks on life that arise from actions related to the psyche.

Parent-child conversations and the socialization of moral autonomy in a progressive Protestant church community

ABSTRACT Much of the previous work on culture and moral reasoning development has focused on the cultural content of moral reasoning, demonstrating how moral autonomy, which emphasizes justice and individual welfare, is culturally structured. This paper investigates cultural processes of autonomous moral reasoning development by analyzing parent-child conversations. To do so, this paper first offers a conceptual analysis that reinterprets previous findings regarding parent-child conversations and moral autonomy through a cultural lens. To illustrate these conceptual claims, it then provides empirical qualitative analyses of parent-child conversations among members of a progressive Protestant church community. Substantively, results identified multiple conversational processes that redundantly enacted autonomy, yet also suggested the limits of parent-child conversations as a context for children’s moral autonomy development in this community. Broadly, this paper highlights the ways in which cultural moral outlooks are implicitly, and selectively, socialized through particular conversational processes, and the active nature of cultural reproduction.

Inquiry of Personal Intelligence Of Adolescence and Early Adulthood College Students of Tamilnadu using Id3 Algorithm

Educational Data Mining is an Emerging research domain which focus on extracting knowledge from educational databases to promote the learning environment. Educational psychology helps to understand the differences in learning process of a person from cognitive and behavioral perspective. This research aims to predict the personal intelligence of adolescence and early adulthood who are studying under graduate and post graduate courses in educational institution. Adolescence plays a very import role in the development of personality to new dimensions in human life. The Adolescence physical, mental, social, moral and spiritual outlooks undergo revolutionary changes. Many teachers and parents fail to asses these changes and they do not like to slacken their control over them. Psychologist has stressed to properly channelize the behavior of adolescence and give them adequate education. In this paper machine learning technique with decision tree induction algorithm was used to analyze the personal intelligence of college students. To construct the decision tree, Entropy and Information Gain are used as attribute selection measures in ID3 algorithm. Applying data mining techniques in the field of Educational Psychology is a new method and the rules generated from the decision tree helps to identify the personal intelligence of the students. This result helps the Educators to improve the learning environment better for Adolescence.

Between Absolutism and Efficiency: Reply to Professors Giestfeld, Grady, and Priel

This paper replies to Professor Geistfeld, Grady, and Priel’s excellent comments on my article Principles of Risk Imposition and the Priority of Avoiding Harm, 36 Revus J. for Const. Th. & Phil. of Law, 7 (2018). Both my article and Professor Geistfeld’s, Grady’s and Priel’s papers are part of the “Symposium: Risk Regulation and Tort Law, A discussion with Gregory C. Keating.” This Reply completes the Symposium. It attempts, briefly, to develop two lines of argument. One line attempts to respond to the specific criticism that Professors Geistfeld, Grady, and Priel, make in the Comments. In part, my specific replies seek to show that the safety and feasibility standards are rationally justifiable and genuine alternatives to cost-justification as a standard of precaution. Though I disagree with specific arguments of each of my critics, I believe that other claims they make are true, but do not undermine my arguments. For example, my arguments are compatible with Professor Grady’s correct observation that juries have the authority to reach verdicts inconsistent with the priority of avoiding harm — or any other theory of negligence. The merits of jury adjudication are not settled by any normative theory of reasonable care. I also agree with Professor Priel’s thesis that societies do not prioritize harm prevention. We are, I think, torn between competing moral outlooks and the standards of precaution that express those outlooks. My point is that standards of precaution which prioritize the avoidance of harm are rationally defensible, albeit in non-welfarist terms. I am likewise persuaded that Professor Geistfeld is correct to contend that welfare economics is compatible with non-welfarist normative commitments, but mistaken to think that measures such as willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-accept are the best ways to articulate the concrete implications of non-welfarist principles of precaution. This Reply leads, however, with a second line of argument. We are all — consequentialists and non-consequentialists, philosophers and economists — imprisoned in the grip of the debate between utilitarianism and its critics that dominated political philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century. Classical utilitarianism fell into disfavor because its commitment to maximizing utility is capable of justifying deprivations of basic rights for a minority whenever such restrictions promoted the greatest net happiness. The cure for this disease lay in making some basic rights “absolute” — in ruling out some trade-offs entirely. Applied to problems of risk imposition, the legacy of this debate is the assumption that we must choose between “absolutism” and “efficiency”. Unattractive as “efficient” trade-offs may be, the absolute prohibition of trade-offs is untenable when risks of physical harm are at issue. The safety and feasibility standards must fail because they are unacceptably absolutist. Once we shake ourselves free of this philosophical legacy we can see that this is not the case: these standards are standards for making trade-offs not for forbidding them and that the trade-offs they prescribe are perfectly plausible.

Moral Controversy and Working with Colleagues with a Shared Ethical/Moral Outlook: A National Survey of US Primary Care Physicians.

This study assesses physicians' attitudes on the importance of working with colleagues who share the same ethical or moral outlook regarding morally controversial healthcare practices and examines the association of physicians' religious and spiritual characteristics with these attitudes. We conducted a secondary data analysis of a 2009 national survey that was administered to a stratified random sample of 1504 US primary care physicians (PCPs). In that dataset, physicians were asked: "For you personally, how important is it to work with colleagues who share your ethical/moral outlook regarding morally controversial health care practices?" We examined associations between physicians' religious/spiritual characteristics and their attitudes toward having a shared ethical/moral outlook with colleagues. Among eligible respondents, the response rate was 63% (896/1427). Overall, 69% of PCPs indicated that working with colleagues who share their ethical/moral outlook regarding morally controversial healthcare practices was either very important (23%) or somewhat important (46%). Physicians who were more religious were more likely than nonreligious physicians to report that a shared ethical/moral outlook was somewhat/very important to them (P < 0.001 for all measures of religiosity, including religious affiliation, attendance at religious services, intrinsic religiosity, and importance of religion as well as spirituality). Physicians with a high sense of calling were more likely than those with a low sense of calling to report a high importance of having a shared ethical/moral outlook with colleagues regarding morally controversial healthcare practices (multivariate odds ratio 2.5, 95% confidence interval 1.5-4.1). In this national study of PCPs, physicians who identified as religious, spiritual, or having a high sense of calling were found to place a stronger emphasis on the importance of shared ethical/moral outlook with work colleagues regarding morally controversial healthcare practices. Moral controversy in health care may pose a particular challenge for physicians with lower commitments to theological pluralism.

Locating the Intercultural Discourse of Leila Aboulela’s The Translator; Cultural Compatibility, Clash of Civilization or a Not-yet-told Story?

ABSTRACTLeila Aboulela’s novel, The Translator, animates diverse critical responses in the context of intercultural narratives within literary studies and beyond. The observation of this paper is that a growing body of research undergoes dialectical cultural controversy whether adopting deeply critical position of the novel or otherwise. The purpose of this paper is to examine these responses in the context of the moral philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism. It takes a further step to address the novel’s dialogic strands and claims that Aboulela’s depiction of intercultural discourse embraces a polyphonic voicedness that is necessary for dialogic negotiations with a difference. With the assumption that intercultural dialogue can reinstate critical cultural awareness as an antidote to “clash of civilizations,” the paper rehearses the “healing” power of dialogism in intercultural narratives. It concludes that moral valuations always exist in “dialogic spaces” that offer moral outlooks for restructuring identities and creating shared orientations.

Predispositions to the Good (Anlagen zum Gute)

In Part I of Religion within the boundaries of Mere Reason, Kant distinguishes three predispositions to the good: animality, humanity, and personality (R 6:26). Unlike the propensities to evil, which are “contingent for humanity in general” (R 6:29), the predispositions to good are “original (ursprunglich), for they belong to the possibility of human nature” (R 6:28). Animality and humanity express two different variants of self-love (“mechanical” and “comparing”), whose mode of operation can be traced back to Rousseau’s distinction between “amour de soi” and “amour propre.” Seen this way, the predispositions to the good are not merely determinants of our anthropological structure, but have also a diachronic implication. Animality designates the characteristic moral outlook of agents in the state of nature, while humanity expresses the moral orientation of civilized individuals (their unsociable sociability). Upon these tendencies, Kant believes, all sorts of vices can be grafted. The predisposition to personality, however, stands as a category all of its own: it is irreducible to self-love and immune to any moral corruption (a feature of great importance for the prospects of moral regeneration). Kant conceives of personality as the end towards which all the other predispositions to the good contribute as necessary conditions. The attainment of this end requires a qualitative shift in the moral orientation of the human species, a transformation without which it would impossible for the species to comply with the collective duty of realizing the highest good.

Is Kierkegaard a “Virtue Ethicist”?

Several readers of Kierkegaard have proposed that his works are a good source for contemporary investigations of virtues, especially theistic and Christian ones. Sylvia Walsh has recently offered several arguments to cast doubt on the thesis that Kierkegaard can be profitably read as a “virtue ethicist.” Examination of her arguments helps to clarify what virtues, as excellent traits of human character, can be in a moral outlook that ascribes deep sin and moral helplessness to human beings and their existence and salvation entirely to God’s grace. The examination also clarifies the relationship between virtues and character and between the practices of virtue ethics and character ethics. Such clarification also may provide a bridge of communication between Kierkegaard scholarship and scholars of virtue ethics beyond the theistic communities. In particular, I’ll argue that a character ethics that is not a virtue ethics would be suboptimal as an aid to the formation of Christian wisdom and sanctification. Kierkegaard’s character ethics is a virtue ethics.

From Axial Spirituality to Laissez-faireism: A Genealogy of the Disembedding of the Economy in Charles Taylor

A wholesome economy presumes a community in which it is embedded and according to whose moral outlook it is organised. This means that economic activities obey the same laws as non-economic activities, such as friendship and parenthood. The reversal of this order therefore entails the corruption of fundamental human relationships, and hence the dissolution of the social body. This disorder is our present condition. The economy is conceived as an autonomous sphere with its own amoral laws. Hence, the self-seeking attitude is warranted when we partake in economic activities. Even worse, the calculating way of thinking has infiltrated what should have been non-economic domains of human life. In this article, I reconstruct the long historical path to this topsy-turvy world, largely by drawing on Charles Taylor’s history of ideas. Such corruption is often perceived as a modern phenomenon and is blamed on unbelief. Others have pointed out the monstrosities that arise when the economy, and consequently, economic actors are no longer subordinated to the common good. Contrary to these tendencies, I will show that the Christian urge for perfection, order and uniformity played a role in this regard. This article adds to existing scholarship by highlighting the contribution of Christianity to the anthropocentric turn and the neutralization of vices. These are the necessary conditions for the coming-to-be of laissez-faireism, and hence for the disembedding of the economy from the human community.

Similarity and the trustworthiness of distributive judgements

AbstractWhen people must either save a greater number of people from a smaller harm or a smaller number from a greater harm, do their choices reflect a reasonable moral outlook? We pursue this question with the help of an experiment. In our experiment, two-fifths of subjects employ a similarity heuristic. When alternatives appear dissimilar in terms of the number saved but similar in terms of the magnitude of harm prevented, this heuristic mandates saving the greater number. In our experiment, this leads to choices that are inconsistent with all standard theories of justice. We argue that this demonstrates the untrustworthiness of distributive judgements in cases that elicit similarity-based choice.

Investigating the moral territories of international education: a study of the impact of experience, perspectives and dispositions on teachers’ engagement with difference in the international Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme

The higher degree of global mobility and connectivities within contemporary societies has led to increasing cultural diversity within school student cohorts. In turn, the human activities and interactions within the territories and boundaries of a school have become increasingly complex. During a 2017 study of how transcultural capabilities are being developed and utilised by teachers of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) in Canada and Australia, one theme that emerged was the extent to which teachers felt they could or should influence their students’ moral outlooks on cultural difference. Teachers often expressed spatially bounded moral views of cosmopolitanism; that is, teaching and learning about welcoming and engaging the stranger were framed within a personal, moral geography that was closely associated to defined places that were typically localised within the school community. This paper examines the moral geographies of PYP teachers to highlight the complexities, tensions, paradoxes, and contradictions embedded within the relationships between inclusion and exclusion of difference in the PYP schools. These phenomena are related to a broad range of challenges that arise as a result of the complex interactions between teachers, PYP curriculum and the principles related to engaging difference.

Privacy, Reputation, and Control: Public Figure Privacy Law in Twenty-First Century China

Privacy law, as it regulates the nonconsensual disclosure of personal life, is instrumental to how reputation in human society becomes created, destroyed, and redistributed. In the contemporary Chinese society, as in elsewhere, privacy protection, and the lack thereof, have played an important role in the making of the “haves” and “have-nots” in the society’s reputation landscape. This Article makes a first systematic effort towards accounting for China’s contemporary legal regime that regulates its public figure privacy problems. Through examining leading court cases and relevant regulatory practices, this Article demonstrates that the Chinese privacy regime in the twenty-first century, as embedded in the Party-state’s restrictive information regulation apparatus, differs in significant ways from the corresponding Western paradigms in terms of its operational structure, cultural logic, and political dynamics. Overall, China’s status-based regime is highly protective of government officials until the Party-state purges them from the official ranks. It is also often laissez-faire with respect to privacy of famous individuals outside of the government system, but with notable exceptions for those enjoying an exalted status in the realm of high culture. Furthermore, it can be conspicuously hostile towards ordinary citizens who aspire for the limelight. The impact such public figure privacy regime may have had on China’s reputation landscape is conceivably regressive. As this Article explains, underlying such regime is a lasting, albeit evolving, cultural tradition that tends to associate privacy protection with a hierarchical system of moral outlook. Notwithstanding the importance of culture, this Article further argues that China’s privacy regulation must also be understood as embedded in the country’s political context. As the status-based privacy regime produces disparate reputational consequences, it provides the ruling Party-state with a lever to incentivize and control a diverse network of elites, whom the Party-state considers as agents for upholding its political and moral authority and implementing its social control agenda. China’s privacy regime in the new millennium may thus be understood as having stemmed from an intricate political process as the Party-state strategically responds to rising challenges from increasingly powerful and competing market and social forces over the production of information, fame, and influence.