Mohammadreza Abdulahnezhad
Abstract
The concept of ‘free will’ is central in both Kant’s and Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy. In the Kantian moral system, ‘free will’ is only regarded as moral when it dutifully follows reason and its a priori, absolute rules. Schopenhauer, on the other hand, holds that ...
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The concept of ‘free will’ is central in both Kant’s and Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy. In the Kantian moral system, ‘free will’ is only regarded as moral when it dutifully follows reason and its a priori, absolute rules. Schopenhauer, on the other hand, holds that since human will is a priori to his reason, reason cannot engage will into any action. Instead of reason, he regards human motivations and stimulations as the main sources which shape any action, including moral actions. The important point is that he identifies three types of stimulations, namely ‘compassion’, ‘egoism’ and ‘pessimism’, among which he finds only ‘compassion’ to be the true stimulation for moral action and the basis of moral acts, and he dismisses the other two as immoral stimulations. He criticises foundations of the Kantian moral philosophy with the help of three following arguments: first, he questions the Kantian moral formalism and his a priori claims; second, he criticises the conceptual flaw in Kant’s moral philosophy (which is the result of an inconsistency between his claim that morality should be based on reason and his inner appreciation of verbal morality); third, he accuses Kant’s moral system of being one based on egoism. The present paper aims to explain the main status and characteristic of Schopenhauer’s moral system by way of explaining his criticism of Kant’s moral system.
rouhollah ramezani varzaneh; ahmad ali akbar mesgari
Volume 9, Issue 35 , October 2013, , Pages 83-96
Abstract
This article covers some conceptual analyses made about basic issues in environmental ethics. The analyses were partly concerned with the significance and efficacy of philosophical efforts regarding environmental issues and partly with the methods, arguments, concepts, and ideas common in this field ...
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This article covers some conceptual analyses made about basic issues in environmental ethics. The analyses were partly concerned with the significance and efficacy of philosophical efforts regarding environmental issues and partly with the methods, arguments, concepts, and ideas common in this field of philosophy. The findings led the researchers to conclude that a principlistic attitude is inevitable, and a doer-based or action-based attitude, instead of the common subject-based attitude, towards ethical duties would pave the way for extending human duties to non-human beings. Moreover, a right-based conception of duty would better explain our duty towards non-human beings while “right” is understood according to the notion of “need” rather than “value”.
masoud seyf
Abstract
The main question of this article is whether it is possible in Kant's ethical theory that an ethical agent commits mistake in recognizing a right ethical judgment or not. In order to reply to this question, first the place of wrong ethical judgment in Kant's ethical theory is considered. Then, by referring ...
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The main question of this article is whether it is possible in Kant's ethical theory that an ethical agent commits mistake in recognizing a right ethical judgment or not. In order to reply to this question, first the place of wrong ethical judgment in Kant's ethical theory is considered. Then, by referring to the two main ethical principles in Kant's theory, i.e. universality and autonomy, it is tried to show that these principles are united in Kant’s view and this unity constitutes the basis of his theory and makes him not to accept the possibility of wrong ethical judgment in his ethical theory.
