Moral Vices Research Articles

Mandevillian vices

Bernard Mandeville argued that traits that have traditionally been seen as detrimental or reprehensible, such as greed, ambition, vanity, and the willingness to deceive, can produce significant social goods. He went so far as to suggest that a society composed of individuals who embody these vices would, under certain constraints, be better off than one composed only of those who embody the virtues of self-restraint. In the twentieth century, Mandeville’s insights were taken up in economics by John Maynard Keynes, among others. More recently, philosophers have drawn analogies to Mandeville’s ideas in the domains of epistemology and morality, arguing that traits that are typically understood as epistemic or moral vices (e.g. closed-mindedness, vindictiveness) can lead to beneficial outcomes for the groups in which individuals cooperate, deliberate, and decide, for instance by propitiously dividing the cognitive labor involved in critical inquiry and introducing transient diversity. We argue that mandevillian virtues have a negative counterpart, mandevillian vices, which are traits that are beneficial to or admirable in their individual possessor, but are or can be systematically detrimental to the group to which that individual belongs. Whilst virtue ethics and epistemology prescribe character traits that are good for every moral and epistemic agent, and ideally across all situations, mandevillian virtues show that group dynamics can complicate this picture. In this paper, we provide a unifying explanation of the main mechanism responsible for mandevillian traits in general and motivate the case for the opposite of mandevillian virtues, namely mandevillian vices.

Contours of Status and Power: Seats and Sitting Postures in Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend

Abstract The Victorians were notorious for their preoccupation with the posture and carriage of men and women, by which they outlined the contours of their refinement and moral characters. Drawing on Victorian etiquette manuals and modern social psychological studies regarding sitting postures, this article addresses scenes and melodramas featuring seats in Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend so as to reveal how Dickens has created a scathing satire on the respectable pretension and deep moral vices of Victorian society through his seemingly exaggerated description of characters’ sitting manners. It argues that seat performance is not only a crucial means for Victorians’ self-representation but also a shrewd strategy for domination. While Dickens’s caricatured depictions of Lammle’s and Fledgeby’s abominable sitting manners manifests his biting attacks on Victorian predatory fortune-hunters’ thirst for power and money, his rendition of Jenny’s and Bella’s questionable sitting poses lays bare the miseries and imprisonment of women in that era.

Free will and the moral vice explanation of hell's finality

AbstractAccording to the Free Will Explanation of a traditional view of hell, human freedom explains why some human persons are in hell. Human freedom also explains its punishment and finality: persons in hell have freely developed moral vices that are their own punishment and that make repentance psychologically impossible. So, even though God continues to desire reconciliation with persons in hell, damned persons do not want reconciliation with God. But this moral vice explanation of hell's finality is implausible. I argue that God can and would make direct or indirect alterations in their character to give them new motivational reasons that re-enable their freedom to repent. Subsequently, I argue that it is probable that each damned person will be saved eventually, because there is a potential infinity of opportunities for free repentance. Thus, if the Free Will Explanation's descriptions of hell and divine love are correct, it is highly probable that each person in hell escapes to heaven.

Ignorance in Plato’s Protagoras

Abstract Ignorance is commonly assumed to be a lack of knowledge in Plato’s Socratic dialogues. I challenge that assumption. In the Protagoras, ignorance is conceived to be a substantive, structural psychic flaw—the soul’s domination by inferior elements that are by nature fit to be ruled. Ignorant people are characterized by both false beliefs about evaluative matters in specific situations and an enduring deception about their own psychic conditions. On my interpretation, akrasia, moral vices, and epistemic vices are products or forms of ignorance, and a person who lacks knowledge is not necessarily ignorant.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan Retold in Kenya: The Violence of Corruption and Tribalism

The narrative of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke 10: 25-37. It is Jesus’ response to a Jewish teacher of the Law who inquired from Jesus what he could do to receive eternal life. According to the Lawyer’s understanding, all that was required was to “love your neighbour as you love yourself”. But the Lawyer went on and asked Jesus yet another question about who his neighbour was. This prompted Jesus to use the Good Samaritan parable to make his point. In brief, the story is about this man who was travelling down Jerusalem-Jericho Road and was attacked by robbers, stripped naked, beaten, and left half dead on the roadside, wounded and bleeding. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus invites us to make, or turn, the other, into a neighbour, even when it involves taking risks, even if we do not know that person My neighbour is not only the one whom I know or is of my tribe or religion. Probably the priest and Levite did not stop because they might not have recognised one of theirs in the wounded person, might have feared to get attacked in the same place, or were prevented from stopping because of their commitments of rituals. True love, universal love, that does not discriminate would help us to fight violence and corruption. In this case, the Good Samaritan, not appreciated by the Jews, most likely came to the aid of a Jew since Jericho is geographically located in Judea, and not far from Jerusalem. This chapter has argued that the parable of the Good Samaritan retold in Kenya underlines the truth about the violence of corruption and tribalism which are some of the moral vices that are highly pronounced in contemporary Kenya to the extent that they have assumed dangerous and destructive proportions. Corruption and tribalism combine to produce a society characterized by gross inequalities in all aspects of life.

Intellectual Vices as Implicit Attitudes

The article analyzes an important concept of contemporary virtue epistemology – the concept of intellectual vice, that is a trait of intellectual character that hinders responsible research. The purpose of this article is to formulate a hypothesis that, today, in the modern culture, a significant part of epistemic vices are implicit attitudes. The first part of the article explores the concept of implicit attitude, examines examples of implicit attitudes that have become widespread in the research literature: implicit sexism and racism. The second part of the article shows that in cases of implicitly biased behavior there is a manifestation of epistemic vice, and that the “motivational” theory based on Zagzebski’s ideas cannot explain the manifestation of intellectual vice in cases of implicit bias. In the third section of the article, it is demonstrated that implicit attitudes can be traits of the agent’s character (like moral vices that are not recognized by the subject herself): they can be acquired, rooted in the personality, and can be corrected. The fourth paragraph of the article analyses the conditions under which intellectual vices can be explicit attitudes. It is possible if the agent is a diabolical being (guided by evil as a goal), has egoistic vices (applies different criteria of vice to himself and to others), or is irrational. In the final section, it is shown that the spread of critical thinking in modern society should lead to the transition of intellectual vices from explicit attitudes to implicit ones. The conclusion is made about the theoretical and practical significance of the hypothesis under discussion. From a theoretical point of view, it allows us to explain why intellectual vices are widespread and difficult to eradicate, to place vices as character traits between the local (situational) and global levels, to apply to the concept of epistemic vice all the research concerning implicit attitudes, to develop a theory of epistemic responsibility. In practical terms, this hypothesis can be used to analyze the manifestations of implicit vices in various spheres.

Wise political education: characteristics, principles and efficiency

Political education means preparing citizens to accept social roles and perform political duties in society. Wise political education is one of the educational models that is rooted in the philosophical tradition of ancient Greece and has been considered by thinkers in different historical periods. In this educational model, the institutionalization of political and social values and norms is followed in three individual, family and social areas of education. In this process, the physical and mental education of individuals begins from childhood and they are taught political and social skills and awareness on the path to development. Teaching moral virtues and avoiding moral vices is the basis of wise political education. The institution of the family has the task of institutionalizing values and norms such as love, affection, courage, friendship, cooperation and rule of law in children. And in the process, individuals are prepared to accept and play political and social roles.

Urdu-14 Reasons for nonpayment of parental rights and their remedy Research study in the light of Quran and Sunnah

Life is with humans and beginning of every human is with parents. That's why Islam emphasizes the Rights of parent, Islam emphasizes to obey the parents even they are disbelievers in Islam. Parents' rights are considered to be a universal duty, which has also been an important part of all the religions even before Islam. Islam has also given so much importance to the parents' rights. Islam has made it compulsory for the Muslims to treat their parents with all goodness and mercy. A Muslim should recognize the status of the parents and know his duties towards them. The status of parents in Islam is a status which mankind had not known before. Allah has placed the respect for the parent’s just one step below the belief in Allah and true worship of Him. Moreover, obeying parents is a direct commandment of Allah. Islam has also fixed their financial rights. In Islam, serving them is better than optional prayers even if they are non-Muslims. Parents' prayers for their children are accepted earlier. If a person honors his parents this may be the cause of his own children honoring him. Disobedience to parents is among greater sins and moral vices referring to any form of annoying father and mother or either of them by tongue or action. Disobedience to parents has many reasons. It includes lack of religious educations, poverty, fights between Parents, unreasonable parental expectations and social media. Islam has created many opportunities to serve parents. These opportunities are quite universal and give a perfect a solution for every problem for all this; Qur’anic education is needed to make it possible. Government should also take some positive steps in this regard.

Mandevillian Virtues

Studies in collective intelligence have shown that suboptimal cognitive traits of individuals can lead a group to succeed in a collective cognitive task, in recent literature this is called mandevillian intelligence. Analogically, as Mandeville has suggested, the moral vices of individuals can sometimes also lead to collective good. I suggest that this mandevillian morality can happen in many ways in collaborative activities. Mandevillian morality presents a challenge for normative virtue theories in ethics. The core of the problem is that mandevillian morality implies that individual vice is, in some cases, valuable. However, normative virtue theories generally see vice as disvaluable. A consequence of this is that virtue theories struggle to account for the good that can emerge in a collective. I argue that normative virtue theories can in fact accommodate for mandevillian emergent good. I put forward three distinctive features that allow a virtue theory to do so: a distinction between individual and group virtues, a distinction between motivational and teleological virtues, and an acknowledgement of the normativity of “vicious” roles in groups.

‘Removing the Barriers’: Mary Midgley on Concern for Animals

AbstractThis paper focuses on Mary Midgley's influential discussions, over more than thirty years, of the relationship between human beings and animals, in particular on her concern to ‘remove the barriers’ that stand in the way of proper understanding and treatment of animals. These barriers, she demonstrates, have been erected by animal science, epistemology and mainstream moral philosophy alike. In each case, she argues, our attitudes to animals are warped by approaches that are at once excessively abstract, over-theoretical and guilty of a collective hubris on the part of humankind. In keeping with Midgley's own position, it is argued in this paper that, to remove these barriers, what is required is not yet another theory of how and why animals matter, but attention to actual engagements with animals and to the moral failings or vices that distort people's relationships with them.

Study of two concepts of the world, including moral virtues and moral vices in Masnavi Manavi

Study of two concepts of the world, including moral virtues and moral vices in Masnavi Manavi

Back to Benedict: L’Arche and Form-of-Life

This article is explorative in that it seeks to say something about the theological and philosophical meaning of that form-of-life L’Arche represents; the form-of-life in which life within L’Arche is the constitutive element of and inseparable from its form and rule/s that define it. It is vital to note at the outset that characterizing L'Arche as a form-of-life is not an injunction against characterizing it as a practice in an Aristotelian sense, as has been done by several writers (Hauerwas, Reinders, and Swinton). Instead, my intention is to nuance prevailing ways of speaking of L’Arche to highlight how L’Arche is not only a milieu of living traditions where practices are embodied in ways that make the display of moral virtues and moral vices intelligible but also a form-of-life “that is of a life that, in its sequence, makes itself that very form, and coincides with it” and, in particular, how this life in its sequence constitutes the reality of a rule identified with its form-of-life. To speak of L’Arche in this way allows us to name the ethos (both habitus and dwelling) of L’Arche as a human form of life (singular) and disability as a plurality of forms therein where the becoming human of the human being occurs relative to its form-of-life. Methodologically, this framework makes it possible to characterize L’Arche as a form-of-life in relation to the way L’Arche lives. Such characterization is predicated on the presumption that the life L’Arche lives constitutes the reality of a rule and ethos identified with its form-of-life from which L’Arche draws its name, through which it is sanctified by means of time, and in which care is constitutive element.

The role of clothing in the pre-bourgeois ambience of Kersnik’s novels

The article focuses on the analysis of women’s and men’s clothing appearances in the pre-bo-urgeois ambience of Kersnik’s novels. Particular clothing items and clothing appearances indicate the presence of specifi c spiritual and social characteristics, typical for the cultural and historical environment in which the two literary works were created. The methodological approach of the analysis in terms of theory is based on general semiotic theory (Eco, Lotman), cultural semiotics (Barthes), literary theory and literary history, Lotman’s symbol theory, clothing culture, discourse analysis and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus. The article discusses separately the clothing appearan-ces of male and female characters. The descriptions of clothing appearances reveal the socio-histo-rical background of the literary works as well as many other abstract categories such as characters’ mental states, their ideologies, political beliefs, positive and negative character attributes as well as their moral virtues and vices. Clothes as part of the pre-bourgeois habitus try to establish a balance between the urban and the rural, between prestige and humility, between refi nement and coar-seness. Irony is often a result of the contrast between the physical determinants and the associate variable, i.e. the clothing. The author uses a range of various clothing appearances to characterize and mock different classes of people; the trivial conversations about fashion denote the banality of social life; the differences between the “true” bourgeoisie and those who strive to reach and fi t into that social class are already strongly indicated in the descriptions of their external appearances.

An Appraisal of the Implication of Mobile Telecommunication Revolutions on Nigeria’s Young Population: A Study of Students of Higher Education Institutions in Edo State, Nigeria

Telecommunications revolution is affecting every segment of the lives of Nigerians of all ages as it has unarguably become a device in use by almost all and sundry, especially young people at the secondary and higher education institutions. This study investigated the effect of continuous and excessive use of mobile phone technology among university undergraduates, on social interaction, academic performance and moral behaviour in Benin-City, Nigeria. Needless to say, the Nigerian communication has been changed in many ways through the use of mobile phone. Many changes have been noticed in socio-economic and health related area. Many types of views are there regarding the increased use of mobile phones among Nigerian young people especially students studying undergraduate degree. 120 respondents have been randomly selected from three universities: University of Benin, Benson Idahosa University and Wellspring University all located in Benin-City. Data were being collected from 120 samples through a structured data collection tool. Using Pearson Correlation coefficient on a two-tailed test with SPSS version 20, the study found that Mobile phone communication offers an effective means of bringing good interactive services to the users especially university undergraduates. However, the implications on the moral and academic lives of the students are overwhelming. Apart from distracting students from concentrating on their studies, the students are exposed to various internet sites that lower the expected moral rectitude. In general, it is recommended that the use of mobile phone be restricted and censor by the university so that they are not carried away by social and moral vices that could negatively affect their lives both now and in future.

Moral beauty and education

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to rekindle a version of the age-old view that aesthetic education can contribute to the development of virtue. It proceeds as follows. First, it introduces the moral beauty view, whereby the moral virtues are beautiful, and the moral vices ugly, character traits. Second, two ways in which moral beauty and ugliness can manifest themselves are considered: in people and in artworks. Third, it is argued that character education couched partly in aesthetic terms, and coupled with the cultivation of a sensitivity to moral beauty and ugliness, promise a solid and motivationally robust anchor for moral character development. It is suggested that introducing the notions of moral beauty and ugliness in our conceptual repertoire, coupled with the presence of moral beauty in our surroundings, can undergird more traditional pathways to virtue, whilst being congenial to the maintenance of virtue. Before closing, three objections against these suggestions are addressed, and some avenues for exploring the notion of moral beauty vis-à-vis moral motivation and education are proposed.

On Form, and the Possibility of Moral Beauty

AbstractThere is a tendency in contemporary (analytic) aesthetics to considerably restrict the scope of things that can be beautiful or ugly. This peculiarly modern tendency is holding back progress in aesthetics and robbing it of its potential contribution to other domains of inquiry. One view that has suffered neglect as a result of this tendency is the moral beauty view, whereby the moral virtues are beautiful and the moral vices are ugly. This neglect stems from an assumption to the effect that virtues and vices simply cannot be beautiful or ugly. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it develops an account of form, under which, it argues, possession of form suffices for an object’s candidature for beauty and ugliness. Second, it argues that, under the foregoing proposal, the moral beauty view turns out to be a coherent position, and so should be taken seriously in both aesthetics and ethics.

O O barbeiro de Sevilha

Compreender o contexto histórico e a elaboração do enredo de uma ópera são elementos fundamentais para uma visão crítica da obra de arte e, para isso, faz-se necessário investigar dados primários e fontes bibliográficas. No caso de O barbeiro de Sevilha de Rossini, o libretista Cesare Sterbini se baseou na comédia O barbeiro de Sevilha de Beaumarchais, escrita na França no final do século XVIII, numa sociedade que passava por grandes transformações sócio-políticas, rumo à Revolução Francesa. Após a leitura dos dois textos, propôs-se a identificação dos trechos da comédia de Beaumarchais mantidos e eliminados no libreto. A partir das informações obtidas, foi realizada discussão e análise das possíveis mudanças genéricas do libreto de Sterbini, tendo em vista o conteúdo de sua fonte. Da comparação do hipertexto de Sterbini com o hipotexto de Beaumarchais, pode-se depreender que o sentido político presente na comédia, derivado do seu caráter satírico (crítica dos vícios morais) é amenizado na ópera. A mudança de gênero produz um deslocamento de tom, tornando o texto de Sterbini mais leve e carregado de comicidade, sem esbarrar nas questões políticas. A caracterização de Rosina e seu destino amoroso fazem com que o texto de Sterbini se aproxime do Romantismo, em desenvolvimento na Europa da época. Assim, os procedimentos de apropriação do hipertexto também servem para adequar o enredo aos preceitos da nova estética em formação. Talvez por isso a ópera tenha se tornado tão popular para o público da época: discutia temas nascentes, como uma nova sociedade e a sua subjetividade.

Music, emotions and reform in South Asian Islam: perspectives from the eighteenth to the twentieth century

ABSTRACTThis article explores the ‘reformist discourse’ on mystical audition (samā‘) in South Asia (from the eighteenth to the twentieth century). Reform in the Islamicate world has been studied conventionally from the perspective of compliance with or deviation from the sharī‘a. This narrative holds that ecstasy is the result of intoxication that transgresses the boundaries of doctrinal Islam which privileges sobriety. However, this article argues that sharī‘a was subject to various and/or contested interpretations. The article discusses how emotion knowledge derived from ‘psychology’ (‘Ilm al-Nafs or ‘Ilm al-Nafsiyāt), with the circulation of ideas and concepts across the Indo-Persian and Arabic regions, was appropriated by Muslim scholars to privilege or discourage certain emotional practices and styles. Sufi scholars, in this period, were drawing upon various disciplines – theology, philosophy, medical knowledge (ṭibb) and Sufi psychology. They have attributed different emotions (discussed in Sufi texts as moral virtues or vices and mystical states and stages) to different ‘subtle components’ such as heart, spirit, soul intellect and others. The various ways of conceptualizing emotions influenced the attitudes of Muslim scholars who privileged different emotional styles towards the mystical practice of samā‘. Thus, the reformist discourse in South Asian Islam, informed by emotion knowledge, was contested. The article analyzes the writings of Muslim scholars on Sufi ideas and practices, sharī‘a, and psychology and shows how notions about the (physiological/psychological) mystical effects (experienced in the assembly of samā‘) and ideological positions shaped diverse attitudes to mystical audition.

اراده و اختیار در نظرگاه غزالی و اسپینوزا

اراده و اختیار در نظرگاه غزالی و اسپینوزا

Philosophical Root of Moderation Discourse in Iran’s Eleventh Presidential Election

Abstract Moderation was a triumphant discourse of Iran's eleventh presidential election. It’s a new attitude in the political realm and most of the movements relate themselves to it and each one interprete their actions according to moderation. For clarifying this ambiguous trend, we should refer to its philosophical root. It seems that Aristotle is the first one who represented this theory. In fact, moderation is one of the main principles of Aristotelian ethics. Understanding this concept requires understanding the basic concepts of the intellectual and moral theory of Aristotle. Moderation is the center of his theory of virtue. According to this principle, all the moral virtues are intermediates and excess, and defects in the actions and emotions cause moral vices. This theory could be the best way to pass excess and deficiencies in Iran's political sphere.