A Discussion on Moral Purpose (original) (raw)
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Hypothesized Arguments for Morality
https://econteenblog.wordpress.com/, 2021
This paper hypothesizes and argues that the meaning of morality is what maximizes happiness. Happiness in this paper will be defined as an overall sense of positive feelings and wellbeing. Also, this paper hypothesizes and argues that even though it is hypothesized that it is possible to be selfless, that the best moral act isn’t a selfless one.
Purpose as a Moral Virtue for Flourishing
Positive psychology has significantly influenced studies in the fields of moral philosophy, psychology and education, and scholars in those fields have attempted to apply its ideas and methods to moral education. Among various theoretical frameworks, virtue ethics is most likely to connect positive psychology to moral educational studies because it pursues eudaimonia (flourishing). However, some virtue ethicists have been concerned about whether the current mainstream concept of positive psychology can apply directly to moral education because it focuses on subjective aspects of happiness, but not its objective and moral aspects. Thus, I will consider whether the concept of purpose, which was investigated recently by a group of psychologists and emphasizes both subjective and objective aspects of happiness, can address this issue. I will examine whether purpose is a moral virtue contributing to flourishing, consider if its nature is possibly a second-order virtue and whether it is distinguishable from other second-order virtues.
Modern Moral Happiness: Introduction
2023
What can the wisdom of virtue teach us about imperfection, mediocrity, and the pursuit of happiness? Aristotle says that the virtues are the character traits needed for happiness. Rosalind Hursthouse’s analysis of this premise, called Plato’s requirement on the virtues, is made up of three theses, the first of which is the claim that the virtues benefit their possessor from within an ethical outlook. In this paper, I defend the neo-Aristotelian version of the view that morality is a form of enlightened self-interest. In the first section, I offer an analysis of Plato’s requirement on the virtues. In the second section, I respond to David Copp and David Sobel’s objection that the less-than-full virtues sometimes benefit their possessor more than the full virtues. In the third section, I respond to Nomy Arpaly’s objection that moral mediocrity benefits its possessor more than moral excellence. In the fourth section, I argue that the full virtues benefit their possessor. My conclusion is that truly comprehending Plato’s first requirement can clear out of the way some misconceived criticisms of it, making room for a genuinely promising track to the rationality of morality.
Taking the Morality Out of Happiness
In an important and widely discussed series of studies, Jonathan Phillips and colleagues have suggested that the ordinary concept of happiness has a substantial moral component. For instance, two persons who enjoy the same extent of positive emotions and are equally satisfied with their lives are judged as happy to different degrees if one is less moral than the other. Considering that the relation between morality and happiness or self-interest has been one of the central questions of moral philosophy since at least Plato, such a result would be of considerable philosophical interest. On closer examination of the original research and new studies, we suggest that the data point to a different conclusion: in the dominant folk understanding of happiness, morality has no fundamental role. Findings seeming to indicate a moralized concept are better explained, we suggest, by folk theories on which extreme moral turpitude indicates that an individual suffers from psychological dysfunction.
Chapter Seven A moral life revised and extended
At the end of the last chapter, I suggested that the solution to practical problems where moral values are in conflict cannot always be determined in advance of what individual people make of those values in the context of their particular lives. So, while I have suggested, following Diamond, and via her Wiggins, there may be a kind of convergence that can indicate certain moral facts, as for example that there is nothing else to think but that slavery is morally unjust and insupportable, such convergence will be more modest than moral theorists typically hope to achieve. As I have argued throughout this book, doing justice to the particular moral lives of different people involves conceding that moral judgments cannot be universalized. In this last chapter I want to defend this claim by attending to a particular life that illustrates and commends this point to us.
Review of International Geographical Education Online, 2021
As we search for happiness, we realize how we fully share with humanity's many joys as well as sorrows. What remains central is how to deal with changes -- psychologically, spiritually, economically, and technologically. This paper examines the issue of the individual by Ayn Rand. This work raised questions regarding Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism that places the highest value on the individual, with emphasis on reason and freedom. In essence, the human person is considered to be responsible for one's rationality based on one's capacity to choose; with happiness as the moral purpose of life. Following a brief introduction of the theory that focused on the significant impact to the present laissez-faire capitalism, is an analysis of Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the individual. This article made significant comparisons between Rand and Nietzsche and their justifications of the moral person with special attention to the Apollonian reality. A critical discussion on the implications of the Objectivist arguments to the Filipinos follows by drawing attention to loob that encompassed Filipinos' humanity, personality, theological perspective, and daily experiences. The work proceeds in defining Filipino indigenous thoughts to appreciate culture and how it shapes Philippine history as a nation. More, it aspired to be in harmony with others, and nature to be in union with God. The interior loob underscored the innate goodness; while the holistic concept, the non-dual outlook of the world. Finally, the paper underpinned that despite the prominence of modern science and technology, there is a concern for the inner and personal nature of the self.