Is Ethics Based on Character?: Importance of Character and Narrative in Virtue Ethics
Kantian and Utilitarian theories tend to isolate moral decisions in the present moment and separate them from personal histories. In contrast, virtue ethics emphasizes the long-term nature of basic ethical choices and the advantage of using a life-s...
Moral Dilemmas...Can Ethics Help?: Moral Dilemmas...Can Ethics Help?
The parents and medical staff caring for a premature baby struggling for life are faced with the decision of whether or not to continue treatment. Philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose ideas have influenced modern medical ethics, would answer such a ques...
What is Human Nature?: Judao-Christian Tradition: Free Will, The
In the story of the Fall God punishes Adam and Eve for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Those marks of punishment became known as original sin and are closely tied to another aspect of human nature, free will. In the Christian tradition spirit may...
What is Human Nature?: Judao-Christian Tradition: Human Superiority Over Animals, The
The belief that humans are superior to animals is central to the Judeo-Christian tradition. As recorded in Genesis, God said, "Let us make man in our image...and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over...
What is Human Nature?: St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Nature
Unlike Plato, Aristotle's writings were not translated into Latin and read by Christians until the 13th century. One of the first to pick up his ideas was St. Thomas Aquinas who agreed that human nature is defined by a special purpose or goal. What ...
Do We Have Free Will?: If Determinism were True...
If determinism is true then would our ideas about moral responsibility and punishment have to change as well? Some philosophers contend that we have to think of ourselves as behaving freely even in a world in which there is just one path open to us....
Can We Know God Through Experience?: Brain and Religious Experiences, The
Many believe that the actual origins of reported personal religious experiences are more human than divine. The brain is capable of lots of illusory and hallucinatory activity which undercuts any attempt to prove God through such experiences. For ex...
Can We Know God Through Experience?: Religious Experiences Reflect Cultural Differences and Traditions
Followers from different religions proclaim their own visions of the Divine. In Christianity, the person in prayer comes in contact with God or Jesus Christ, whereas in Eastern traditions the experience is a meeting with nothingness, an impersonal s...
Can We Know God Through Experience?: Matter of Faith, A
Ordinary devotional experiences guide most people of faith. But those who have mystical experiences find that analytical discussions are beside the point. As William James said, "feeling is the deeper source of religion, and that philosophic and the...
Can We Know God Through Experience?: Principle of Credulity
Philosopher Richard Swinburne says that "apparent perceptions ought to be taken at their face value in the absence of positive reason for challenge." He applies this Principle of Credulity to religious experiences and places the burden of proof on ...