معرفت

A General Review of Moral Philosophy

By:  Hamid Shahriari:

Moral philosophy is concerned with the systematic study of principles and values, including the distinctions between right and wrong and between good and evil. Moral philosophy has many complex and close relations to other branches of philosophy such as metaphysics and epistemology.

Rational ethics, often referred to as normative ethics, is distinguished from descriptive ethics which is considered as a part of anthropology or sociology and seeks to discover and describe the moral beliefs in a given culture. Normative ethics is also distinguished from metaethics, which attempts to define the meanings of such terms as "right", "wrong", "good", etc., and examines the relations among these meanings. What makes an action right? How can we say something is right? These are the fundamental questions with which normative ethics is concerned. The relationship between morality and religion is another concern of moral philosophy. Religious moralists tend to claim that morals are impossible without religion.

The Philosophy of Lying and Honesty

By:  Dr. Muhammad Legenhausen

In this article the author compares Islamic with Western views on the topic of lying. Islamic sources stress the evil of lying and the importance of honesty, although jurists have generally acknowledged that in exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to lie. Some Western authors, to the contrary, have argued that the prohibition against lying must be absolute. Western views as presented in the book Lying, by Sissela Bok are reviewed, and many of the conclusions drawn by Bok are confirmed and related to the Aristotelian approach to ethics which has dominated much of Muslim thought on the issue. There is a discussion of the spiritual dangers of what Plato called "the noble lie", that is, the lie told by the ruler for the benefit of the ruled. It is concluded that one who properly fears his Lord should be scrupulous even about telling white lies, for every lie is a sign of disrespect for the truth. The lies of the believer will be exceedingly rare and only a matter of last resort, in such cases as defense of the faith or in order to bring about reconciliation among believers when there is no way to avoid the evil of the lie.

Omnipotence and Sin

By:  Nelson Pike

Translated by: Berenjkar and Fath`ali

Nelson Pike is professor of philosophy at the University of California at Irvine.  Starting with an important distinction between the use of God as a title and its use as a name, Pike argues that God's omnipotence is not an essential property and that the being who is called "God" could sin if he so desired. However, "the individual that is God cannot sin in that sinning would be contrary to a firm and stable feature of his nature."

Absolute Moral Principles and Moral Invension

By:  Mohsen Javadi

Allamah Tabataba'i has proposed a theory about the essence of practical concepts such as outght, ought not and good which pertain to voluntary actions.  According to this theory, whenever terms for such concepts are used, an element of metaphor is involved which indicates the needs of the speaker. The origins of these concepts lie in human sentiment and they function to mediate between the will and its object. It has been alleged that this theory leads to a pernicious form of moral relativism. Shahid Mutahhari has defended the theory from such accusations. The author argues that Allamah's theory does not pertain to universal moral rules at all, but rather is concerned with particular practical judgments and how these judgments mediate between the will and an action. Since his theory is not related to the question of universal moral principles, it is consistent with the claim that such principles are absolute.

The Ethics of Happiness

by:  Mahmud Fath`ali

The writer of this article begins with a review of the various meanings of happiness which have been advanced by the ancient Greek philolosophers. The concept of happiness is usually identified with that of pleasure, virtue, wisdom, or a combination of these. After indicating the views of the great philosophers of Greece about the relationship between happiness and each of these other concepts, the author compares these views with those of some of the great Islamic thinkers. At the end of the article, the views of Shahid Mutahhari and Ayatullah Misbah Yazdi are explained regarding happiness and its meaning in ethics and Islam. The Islamic perspective on these issues is described.

Innate Dispositions in the Qur'an

By:  Morteza Hajj Husayni

One of the discussions of great significance in the Qur'an is that of innate dispositions. Among the relevant subjects to which the verses of the Qur'an and ahadith refer are the following: innate religious dispositions, the innate recognition of the goodness of justice and the wickedness of oppression, the innate ability to recognize wickedness and piety (taqwa), man's formal confession of the truth of Divinity in the world of pre-existence, and the covenant made by God with man not to obey Satan.

How are the innate abilities mentioned to be reconciled with the fact that man is also described as a tyrant, a fool, ungrateful and over anxious? This article seeks to shed light on these issues and their social consequences, explaining the perspective of the Qur'an on this subject.

After Virture

By:  Alasdair MacIntyre

Reviewed by:  Muhammad Ali Shomali

The author holds that due to the failure of the Enlightenment project to provide a rational justification for morality, moral prescripts have been left without support. The moral agent considers himself to be absolutely autonomous on the one hand, while one the other hand he continues to pay lip service to the moral values inherited from the past. While utilitarians and analytic philosophers have sought to find a new basis for moral values, their attempts thus far have been in vain. In his examination of these attempts, the author discusses the concepts of rights, protest, and unmasking. In the seventh chapter of the book there is a discussion of the concept of experience in natural science and empiricist philosophies, and of the theory/observation dichotomy.

Ethics Without God?!

By:  Hadi Sadeqi

Is morality a phenomenon that can be used to establish the existence of God?

In this article, the writer deals with seven versions of moral arguments for the existence of God. The topics discussed with regard to these arguments include the following: command, legislation, execution, justice, the objectivity of moral values, the sense of moral responsibility, eudaimonia, virtue and moral rule.

Of the arguments reviewed, the author finds the sixth to be most defensible and to have the least objectionable premises. The author argues that if the phenomenon of having a sense of responsibility is considered to be something genuine and authentic, as seems to be the case, then there is no better explanation for this phenomenon than the existence of God.