THE ‘REVERSE’ SHIP METAPHOR: APPROACHING METAPHYSICS VIA SOCIETY

The metaphor of a ship led by a skillful captain as an image of society/state led by a wise ruler was perceived in the 18th century Russian culture as a well-known cultural meme. In Andrey Bolotov's (1738–1833) treatise The Guide to True Human Happiness this metaphor is used to illustrate and clarify a complicated metaphysical problem. Bolotov used this image in an attempt to explain the processes inside the human soul, the struggle between the rational and the sensual, between “thoughts and desires”, between “reason and arbitrariness”. He uses the full range of social characteristics and applies them to various mental structures. Any individual’s actions and way of life are represented as resulting from the functioning of their “inner society,” a coordinated work of a ship's crew led by reason as its captain towards the great goal – a virtuous life, bliss and peace.

Imitating the Traditional Gods

This paper examines moral virtues and cult practice in Plato’s Laws. It explores the symposium and the chorus and their potential to provide a recognisable cultural setting, in which the Magnesian citizens can test their responses to pleasurable and painful experiences and thus train their moral virtues. The challenge to this reading is to explain what additional input to moral habituation is provided by the religious aspect of these institutions. This paper draws attention to the relationship between the people and the patron gods of the respective institutions. It argues that the cult practices are designed to reflect the virtuous character of the traditional gods, who serve as the ethical role models for the worshipers. In this way, the worship of the traditional gods not only facilitates moral progress by exemplifying the objective of virtuous life, but also gives an egalitarian version of the ideal of godlikeness to its citizens.

The Catalogs of Vices and Virtues in the Pauline Literature

It was common to find in the writings of the different Greco-Roman philosophical schools of the first century certain catalogs of two or more vices and virtues. They were used to teach that a virtuous life ensured well-being and health while encouraging their disciples to abandon their vicious life leading to ruin. These catalogs influenced the composition of moral catalogs in the New Testament, especially in the letters written or attributed to Paul. Their catalogs were used as a rhetorical tool where the moral teachings of Christianity were developed and taught. According to the divine plan in Christ Jesus, good acts or virtues were considered divinely inspired because they helped the growth of the human person. On the other hand, bad actions or vices were seen as unworthy or sinful because they go against God’s plan and as a sign of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Thus, the catalogs of vices and virtues invited conversion and invited us to wait for the day when God will make all evil and corruption disappear from the world when love (agape), the Christian virtue per excellence, would be the norm for all.

What Are You Guarding?

What role should anger play in a virtuous life? If anger’s rightful target is injustice, and the world is marked by persistent injustice, is it virtuous to be habitually angry? Or, on the contrary, if Christlike character is marked by gentleness, should a virtuous person have little to no anger? To address this puzzle, DeYoung incorporates insights from two strands in Christian thought—one drawing on counsel from the desert fathers and mothers to eschew anger as a manifestation of the false self, and the other from Aquinas, who argues that some anger can be virtuous, if it has the right object and mode of expression. Next, she examines ways that formation in virtuous anger depends on other virtues, including humility, and other practices, such as lament and hope. Finally, she argues for appropriate developmental and vocational variation in anger’s virtuous expression across communities and over a lifetime.

VIRTUE: THE DOVE OF PEACE? SEEKING UNIVERSAL PEACE SOLUTIONS THROUGH INNER TRANSFORMATION

A virtuous life is the fruit of a mind with a rich inner landscape. It can be overtly inferred by sincerity in speech, generosity of righteous deeds and is elegantly fulfilled by inner contentment. World peace entails that despite prevailing differences and disapprovals, global citizens find it proper to continue to work together towards meliorating the quality of life for one and all. This paper analyzed secondary data to unveil the instrumental role played by virtues in the conquest of peace. The findings deducted are indicative of the seminal importance of virtue inculcation as means to restore world peace. KEY WORDS: Virtues, Peace, Values, Character Strengths, Positive Psychology, Spiritual Psychology, Human Values.

El Criterio del Placer en las Leyes V 733a-734e

In Book v of Plato’s Laws, he defends that a virtuous life is better than a vicious one, based on the idea that the former involves more pleasure than the latter (733a-734e). The use of this kind of argumentation seems to contradict other passages of the Laws, in which it will be objected that pleasure can work as a criterion of election. This essay aims to show that this recourse does not presuppose any kind of hedonism. In order to prove this, I hold that in the Laws (i) education tries to integrate our natural tendencies in the good life; (ii) this integration is possible because some pleasures can be pursued for their own sake because they are harmless. Based on these principles, I argue that (iii) the argument of Book v appeals to the possibility of choosing pleasure if they are not involved in other criteria of election.

Self-Knowledge and Despair

It is one thing to show that we are the kind of beings for whom morality applies, and quite another to show that our moral aspirations are on the right track. The latter raises a question of moral self-knowledge, since it asks how we as individuals can have assurance that our moral progress is genuine. This chapter argues that a new form of despair emerges from the question of how we can trust our own aspirations to live a virtuous life. The problem concerns either our tendency to self-deception or our inability to know our underlying intentions—two sides of Kant’s opacity thesis. This chapter argues that Kant’s effort to resolve the issue of moral self-knowledge leads him, in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and the Metaphysics of Morals, to a theory of conscience.

Philosophical conceptualization of evil in the ethical space of Confucianism

The subject of this research is the philosophical conceptualization of evil in the Confucianism. This goal is achieved by solving the following tasks: 1) assessment of Confucianism as a synthesis of the philosophical views of Confucius and Mencius; 2) determination of good and evil as  the contrasting concepts in the ethical space, which is based on the ideal of a “person of high nature” Junzi and the real world of a “petty person"; 3) evaluation of evil as the antipode of good, which is based on the sense of duty and regard of moral rules. The novelty of this research consists in the first within the Russian historical-philosophical literature comparative analysis of the views of Confucius and Mencius upon the nature of evil, examination of the genesis of such representations, and their relevance for modern philosophy. Representations on the nature of good and evil of Confucius and Mencius are based on the contrast within the ethical space of the ideal of a “gentleman” (due) and the reality of a “petty person”. The virtue of a “gentleman” is a means of achieving good; and the virtuous life leads to prosperity of the country. Evil of a “petty person” captured by selfish motives, leads to social demise and political disintegration. Mecius applies same moral principles, which govern the individual’s everyday life, to the political sphere of social existence. The thinker underlines circumscription of the monarchs, indicating that even the monarch – if not a “gentleman”, but merely a “petty person” – can be corrupted by evil, in which case the country faced demise.

Constantine Lascaris, his manuscripts and his ethical concerns

This article aims to examine Constantine Lascaris’s work on Aristoteles’ ethical corpus. We consider evidence from the textual witnesses of the Nicomachean Ethics, the Eudemian Ethics, the Magna Moralia, and some other minor ethical writings, which belonged to Lascaris, in order to reconstruct his working methods. We also explore Lascaris’ own statements about virtuous life; a life devoted to the service of the common good, to philosophy and to the study of texts. For him philosophy was a way of life, rather than simply a discourse. We look at the link between written culture and philosophical life and propose further research into how Byzantine and Renaissance scholars understood their own intellectual activities to be a special kind of spiritual exercise intended to promote moral improvement in both individuals and societies.

Instinct and Hesitation in the Work of Arthur Hugh Clough

The processes of composition and revision put impulse and inspiration into contact with calm reflection in a way that is continuous with the other kinds of human activity Clough describes in his poems—including Dipsychus and The Bothie—where instinct and hesitation have their competing advantages and exert their rival claims. This chapter explores the drafts of Clough’s poems, many of which were heavily revised and remained incomplete at the time of his death. It shows that revision is not solely a technical requirement for Clough; understood more broadly as an ongoing process of self-checking and self-correction, it is a moral requirement in leading a responsible, virtuous life.