However, here it must be mentioned that David Hume’s reputation as a philosopher rests less on an apologist for feeling and more as an opponent of the moral power of reason, famously summarized in the claim that “reason is the slave of the passions” (Hardin, 2007, p. 25). Hume gives emphasis mainly on the psychological phenomenon of sympathy or a specific faculty of emotional communication that leads to the birth of humanity or
Many perspectives of ethical theory do not take this mix into consideration and state that morals are either completely subjective or objective. One of the biggest strength of the virtue ethics arguments is the fact that it allows for morals to be both objective and subjective. Aristotle spent a lot of time thinking about virtue ethics and observing the traits that he valued in others. Through this he saw common traits that he admired in everyone from which he derived four traits he determined to be absolutes: courage, loyalty, generosity, and honesty (Rachels 176). Yet he still recognized that many other
He refers to these observations as rules: rules of art, composition, and criticism. From his observation on the common sense of taste, Hume derives his rule of art standard for taste. For his second standard of taste he uses the same two observed common sense attitudes, this time he identifies that people approve of certain characteristics found in a true judge by
Another section covers issues of a metaphysics of morals. The philosopher chastises the idea of beginning moral judgment with empirical scrutiny. The last part is intended to explain that people have a free will, hence they are able to establish their moral compass and consider an acceptable form of
According to Rand Observation-Based Principle of Rights Theory (2011), he reasoned that man’s life is the standard of moral value, because each person should act to sustain and further his own life. 1.3.4 Justice Theory: Rawls 's theory of justice (2005), revolves around the adaptation of two fundamental principles of justice which in turn, guarantees a just and morally acceptable society. 1.4 Evaluation of Alice’s decision alternatively Theories, Laws, and organizational policies are often involved in complex cases, and Alice should understand that social workers are often legally obligated to take a particular course of action. Allen and Friedman (2010) suggest that, it is also
By juxtaposing her works together, her novella and her opinionated essay, correlation unfolds and similarity shows between the “evil” force of complete assimilation in Anthem and the complete disregard of wrongdoings being denoted as evil in How Does One Live a Rational Life in an Irrational Society. It does not come as a revelation that Equality would find strong personal relation and belief in the opinions of Rand. His resolution that the Council promotes practices of with which he disagrees and finds morally repulsive presents itself in a manner that is agreeable with any morally sound individual. Rand is extremely skillful in effectuating Ethos into her work, weaving together sentences with both beauty and
It strongly requires the feeling of existence and it is gathered in the soul consequently. Otherwise, we can make such assumption: for the sake of the objectiveness of beauty, everyone in the world should share the same cognition and the same aesthetic criterion of beauty. Then here comes the question: how come can we contradict or even debate on our aesthetic feeling of those masterpiece or calligraphy works? From this aspect, the objectivity of beauty cannot be verified. Hume, in his book, “A Treatise of Human Nature”, defines beauty as an expression of a subjective order that reflects our nature, customs, or capricious inclinations (Hume, 1740).
As many students sometimes maintain, "Morality is in the eye of the beholder." We treat morality like taste or aesthetic judgments person relative. This form of moral subjectivism has the sorry consequence that it makes morality a very useless concept, for, on its premises, little or no interpersonal criticism or judgment is logically
The general idea and the foundation about utilitarianism are all about doing something to maximize the happiness and minimize the misery and pain. According to this theory, an act is moral as they tend to increase the happiness or pleasure and reduce misery or pain. This idea, is developed from the father of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham’s axiom “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong” (Bentham J., 1776). Utilitarianism uses the aggregation of harms and benefits to determine the right course of
The virtue ethics theory focuses on what actions or choices an individual should choose based on their own personal inward character. Therefore, if an individual’s character is good then his or her actions or choices should also be good. The virtue ethics theory places responsibility on the individual for their actions or choices when confronted with a moral dilemma. Whereas, “a utilitarian or a Kantian theorist asks, what should I do?, a virtue ethicist asks, in effect, what should I be?” (Vaughn, 2010, pg. 134).