Moral Virtue and Nature

Moral Virtue and Nature PDF Author: Stephen R. Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441146474
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
What make someone a good human being? Is there an objective answer to this question, an answer that can be given in naturalistic terms? For ages philosophers have attempted to develop some sort of naturalistic ethics. Against ethical naturalism, however, notable philosophers have contended that such projects are impossible, due to the existence of some sort of 'gap' between facts and values. Others have suggested that teleology, upon which many forms of ethical naturalism depend, is an outdated metaphysical concept. This book argues that a good human being is one who has those traits the possession of which enables someone to achieve those ends natural to beings like us. Thus, the answer to the question of what makes a good human being is given in terms both objective and naturalistic. The author shows that neither 'is-ought' gaps, nor objections concerning teleology pose insurmountable problems for naturalistic virtue ethics. This work is a much needed contribution to the ongoing debate about ethical theory and ethical virtue.

Moral Virtue and Nature

Moral Virtue and Nature PDF Author: Stephen R. Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441146474
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book

Book Description
What make someone a good human being? Is there an objective answer to this question, an answer that can be given in naturalistic terms? For ages philosophers have attempted to develop some sort of naturalistic ethics. Against ethical naturalism, however, notable philosophers have contended that such projects are impossible, due to the existence of some sort of 'gap' between facts and values. Others have suggested that teleology, upon which many forms of ethical naturalism depend, is an outdated metaphysical concept. This book argues that a good human being is one who has those traits the possession of which enables someone to achieve those ends natural to beings like us. Thus, the answer to the question of what makes a good human being is given in terms both objective and naturalistic. The author shows that neither 'is-ought' gaps, nor objections concerning teleology pose insurmountable problems for naturalistic virtue ethics. This work is a much needed contribution to the ongoing debate about ethical theory and ethical virtue.

From Natural Character to Moral Virtue in Aristotle

From Natural Character to Moral Virtue in Aristotle PDF Author: Mariska Leunissen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019060221X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This book discusses Aristotle's biological views about 'natural character traits' and their importance for moral development. It provides a new, comprehensive account of the physiological underpinnings of moral development and shows that the biological account of natural character provides the conceptual and ideological foundation for Aristotle's ethical views about habituation.

Aristotle's Ethics

Aristotle's Ethics PDF Author: Hope May
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826491103
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Examines Aristotle's views on ethics and human nature, an issue central to the thought of this hugely important and influential philosopher.

Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Virtue Ethics

Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Virtue Ethics PDF Author: J. Budziszewski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107165784
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
This guide to St Thomas Aquinas' virtue ethics provides commentary on essential texts, rendering them accessible to all readers.

Bridging the Gap between Aristotle's Science and Ethics

Bridging the Gap between Aristotle's Science and Ethics PDF Author: Devin Henry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107010365
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Explores the extent to which Aristotle's ethical treatises employ the concepts, methods, and practices developed in his 'scientific' works.

Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues

Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues PDF Author: Angela McKay Knobel
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268201080
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
This study locates Aquinas’s theory of infused and acquired virtue in his foundational understanding of nature and grace. Aquinas holds that all the virtues are bestowed on humans by God along with the gift of sanctifying grace. Since he also holds, with Aristotle, that we can create virtuous dispositions in ourselves through our own repeated good acts, a question arises: How are we to understand the relationship between the virtues God infuses at the moment of grace and virtues that are gradually acquired over time? In this important book, Angela McKay Knobel provides a detailed examination of Aquinas’s theory of infused moral virtue, with special attention to the question of how the infused and acquired moral virtues are related. Part 1 examines Aquinas’s own explicit remarks about the infused and acquired virtues and considers whether and to what extent a coherent “theory” of the relationship between the infused and acquired virtues can be found in Aquinas. Knobel argues that while Aquinas says almost nothing about how the infused and acquired virtues are related, he clearly does believe that the “structure” of the infused virtues mirrors that of the acquired in important ways. Part 2 uses that structure to evaluate existing interpretations of Aquinas and argues that no existing account adequately captures Aquinas’s most fundamental commitments. Knobel ultimately argues that the correct account lies somewhere between the two most commonly advocated theories. Written primarily for students and scholars of moral philosophy and theology, the book will also appeal to readers interested in understanding Aquinas’s theory of virtue.

Character and Environment

Character and Environment PDF Author: Ronald L. Sandler
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231141062
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
In Character and Environment, Ronald L. Sandler brings together contemporary work on virtue ethics with contemporary work on environmental ethics. He demonstrates the many ways that any ethic of character can and should be informed by environmental considerations. He also develops a pluralistic, virtue-oriented environmental ethic that accommodates the richness and complexity of our relationship with the natural environment and provides effective and nuanced guidance on environmental issues.

The Nature of True Virtue

The Nature of True Virtue PDF Author: Jonathan Edwards
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725208571
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
A major work in moral philosophy by the Puritan who was the most modern man of his age. Edwards at his very greatest . . . he speaks with an insight into science and psychology so much ahead of his time that our own can hardly be said to have caught up with him. Perry Miller, 'Jonathan Edwards' Like the great speculators Augustine, Aquinas, and Pascal, Jonathan Edwards treated religious ideas as problems not of dogma, but of life. His exploration of self-love disguised as true virtue is grounded in the hard facts of human behavior. More than a hellfire preacher, more than a theologian, Edwards was a bold and independent philosopher. Nowhere is his force of mind more evident than in this book. He speaks as powerfully to us today as he did to the keenest minds of the eighteenth century.

Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi

Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi PDF Author: T. C. Kline
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872205222
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Xunzi is traditionally identified as the third philosopher in the Confucian tradition, after Confucius and Mencius. Unlike the work of his two predecessors, he wrote complete essays in which he defends his own interpretation of the Confucian position and attacks the positions of others. Within the early Chinese tradition, Xunzi's writings are arguably the most sophisticated and philosophically developed. This richness of philosophical content has led to a lively discussion of his philosophy among contemporary scholars. This volume collects some of the most accessible and important contemporary essays on the thought of Xunzi, with an Introduction that provides historical background, philosophical context, and relates each of the selections to Xunzi's philosophy as a whole and to the themes of virtue, nature, and moral agency. These themes are also discussed in relation to Western philosophical concerns.

Environmental Virtue Ethics

Environmental Virtue Ethics PDF Author: Ronald D. Sandler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742533905
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
There is one certainty regarding the human relationship with nature-there is no getting away from it. But while a relationship with nature is a given, the nature of that relationship is not. Environmental ethics is the attempt to determine how we ought and ought not relate to the natural environment. A complete environmental ethic requires both an ethic of action and an ethic of character. Environmental virtue ethics is the area of environmental ethics concerned with character. It has been an underappreciated and underdeveloped aspect of environmental ethics-until now. The selections in this collection, consisting of ten original and four reprinted essays by leading scholars in the field, discuss the role that virtue and character have traditional played in environmental discourse, and reflect upon the role that it should play in the future. The selections also discuss the substantive content of the environmental virtues and vices, and apply them to concrete environmental issues and problems. This collection establishes the indispensability of environmental virtue ethics to environmental ethics. It also enhances the breadth and quality of the ongoing discussion of environmental virtue and vice and the role they should play in an adequate environmental ethic.