In what sense (if any) was Machiavelli's approach to politics 'scientific' rather than 'moral'?

Richard Wood 0315672 GV201 Introduction to Political Theory In what sense (if any) was Machiavelli's approach to politics 'scientific' rather than 'moral'? In the Prince Machiavelli is not trying to answer any specific moral question but rather he is attempting to give reasons and guidance on why and how a Prince should come to power and hold it. Invariably this has a scientific approach as he does not try to accomplish any goal but for the Prince to assert his power. It is because 'The Prince' is more of a practical guide rather than a philosophical machination or political conjecture that Machiavelli is forced to use a scientific approach. Even when Machiavelli does state that a Prince should look after the well being of his citizens it is not because he sees a moral value in this but because it will enable the Prince to retain power. However Machiavelli does state that at times the Prince must show at least some sense of morality to his citizens even if it is just in order to consolidate his power. Wisby (1995) asserts that Machiavelli's work was more important than this however, he sees 'The Prince' as a book that discounted god as the giver of power to the ruler but 'man's will'. He also states that beyond 'The Prince' Machiavelli's work pushed for Republic's and was not entirely a scientific approach at gaining power although this was limited, "If beyond 'The

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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What is meant by Moral Relativism?

What is meant by Moral Relativism? Moral relativism is an approach to ethics. It is the belief that morality does not relate to any absolute standards of right or wrong, but things such as circumstances and culture affect what is perceived to be 'good' and 'bad' or 'right' or 'wrong'. The idea behind moral relativism is to make the right decision based on the current situation. By taking each choice at a time and weighing up the pros and cons, moral relativists should be able to make a decision that suits everybody involved. A relativist would never view two situations the same, as they know that no two situations can ever be identical. In this way moral relativists are the opposite of absolutes, such as strict upholders of the natural law approach to ethics. This is because moral relativists can never rule anything out or say that anything is defiantly wrong, that is relativist to the situation they are in, for instance, an absolute would argue that in any case of abortion it is always wrong, and should never be done. Whereas a relativist would argue is right in some cases for example rape, and wrong in others for example, just because you don't want the baby. There are many relativist approaches to moral decision-making. Situation ethics is the theory that the right moral behaviour can be different for different people, according to the circumstances in which they find

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A Role of the Environmental Ethics in the modern society.

" A role of the Environmental Ethics in the modern society" A Role of the Environmental Ethics in the modern society. The inspiration for environmental ethics was the first Earth Day in 1970 when environmentalists started urging philosophers who were involved with environmental groups to do something about environmental ethics. An intellectual climate had developed in the last few years of the 1960s in large part because of the publication of two papers in Science: Lynn White`s "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis" (March 1967) and Garett Hardin`s "The Tragedy of the Commons" (December 1968). Most influential with regard to this kind of thinking, however, was an essay in Aldo Leopold`s A Sand County Almanac, "The Land Ethic," in which Leopold explicitly claimed that the roots of the ecological crisis were philosophical. Although originally published in 1949, Sand County Almanac became widely available in 1970 in a special Sierra Club/Ballantine edition, which included essays from a second book, Round River. Most academic activity in the 1970s was spent debating the Lynn White thesis and the tragedy of the commons. These debates were primarily historical, theological, and religious, not philosophical. Throughout most of the decade philosophers sat on the sidelines trying to determine what a field called environmental ethics might look like. The first philosophical

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If ethics are an individual's belief about what is right or wrong or good or bad, then how can managers encourage organisational members to act ethically?

If ethics are an individual's belief about what is right or wrong or good or bad, then how can managers encourage organisational members to act ethically? In today's modern world, there are many organisations with different levels of management. Whichever level of management it is, the managers will have to make decisions be it small or big. From time to time, these decisions are influenced by ethics. Ethics are rules and principles that define right and wrong conduct (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2003). In the world today, ethics are considered to play an important role. Imagine a world without ethics, where no one was interested in the environment or making things better for all. As people go on through life, many of us are likely to have formed our ideas of decency and fairness based on our experiences of life. Ever so often, our views have been influenced by people we have met. In the workplace, there is a collection of these many different experiences and therefore of differing ethics. Many people join a company without investigating the ethics of their employing organisation and often find themselves at variance and out of balance. Because of this it is important for a company to form a structure for ethics with a policy, a code of practice, or a cultural understanding of the rules. It appears to present authors that having senior managers who value ethical

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  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Which is more immoral, homosexuality or society's attitude towards it?

Which is more immoral, homosexuality or society's attitude towards it? Historically, homosexuals have been discriminated against, scapegoated and often even feared. The orientation has been labeled as immoral and unnatural, and the sexual practice considered contrary to God's intent and perverted. There are a number of views on the issue; some believe it to be a mental or genetic disorder that is not the homosexual's fault yet this still cannot be accepted; others accept the orientation yet frown upon genital contact. Others believe same sex relationships, although they still fall short of ideal morality, to be more acceptable in committed relationships than in transient ones. And lastly, there are liberals, both religious and not, who support and tolerate homosexuality as long as it is consensual. Many surveys have been conducted in order to discern how much of the population has had such experiences, inclinations or relationships, and the figures vary greatly. However, if homosexuality is wrong, then it makes no difference as to the numbers of people who admitted to it; if it is morally neutral then society's discriminatory attitude is immoral in itself. Many people remain hostile towards homosexuality. Christian views, formed by the literal interpretation of the Bible, deem homosexuality incompatible with the Church. Although Jesus' teaching does not include anything on

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religion linked to morality

A) Outline the reasons why some argue that morality is linked to religion B) Examine and comment on the reasons for arguing that morality should not be linked to religion 'It's impossible to think of a command without also thinking of a commander' (H.P.Owen) Religion is the belief in and worship of a God or Gods, or any such system of belief and worship. Morality is a personal or social set of standards for good or bad behaviour and character, or the quality of being right, honest or acceptable. These two words 'Morality' and 'Religion' represent a dilemma philosophers have been trying to understand for a long time, mainly whether or not these are linked when making decisions or indeed independent of one another. Many people argue that religion and morality are linked, one such argument being religious authority. Many religions, if not all, use holy books that contain teachings that show people what is morally right and wrong, for example the sermon on the mount in Christianity, the torah scrolls in Judaism and the Qur'an in Islam. In addition, philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that religion supports morality, in his Critique of pure reason, stating that morality pointed towards God, and humans are morally obliged to bring about summum bonum (perfect state of affairs). As it is not possible to do this in ones life, such a place must exist in the afterlife. Furthermore

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How far would you go to make a child smile?

How Far Would You Go To Make A Child Smile? "There are people in this world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." She points to a quote written on a piece of paper by Mahatmas Gandhi inside my binder. Without looking up, she said, "I tear up every time I see this." I stare at her long slender fingers. Her age is clear by looking at the leathery wrinkles on her hands and arms. Her face is long and slender: her cheekbones protruding below her ears cause the only imperfection. Yet, something about her voice cradles gentleness. She's sitting in a chair, arms and legs crossed, patiently waiting for my reply. Looking up and realizing this, I quickly explain, "Oh, right. My father printed it out for me to remind me how fortunate I am." I wondered if that was a good answer. Was it? She quickly throws me a crooked smile and quietly agrees, "That you are, Yutaka." Ruth Kendrick currently is the founder and president of a non-profit organization: The World Children's Fund. Hundreds of dedicated citizens like Ruth, living in countries all over the world such as Switzerland and Germany organize funds to send humanitarian aid to the poverty stricken areas around the world. These countries include Africa, Philippines, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea. As soon as she finished explaining the role her company takes to combat poverty in Developing Countries, I

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What is it meant by 'moral relativism?'

Situation Ethics 'What is it meant by 'moral relativism?' Moral relativism is the view that there are no objective ethical truths, that moral facts only hold relative to a given individual or society. According to this ethical theory, what is morally good for one person or culture might be morally bad for another, and vice versa, there are no moral absolutes. The individual form of moral relativism is called subjectivism; this is where each individual has his or her own moral principles. An idea or opinion is limited by own experience, that opinion is true to the person even though another person may not agree. Conventionalism is an observable fact that moral values differ from society to society, for example, in the United Kingdom we believe that hanging is wrong, where as in China they do. The dependency thesis, moral values are created by society, they are a product of culture. The young experience and internalize values, they then conform to society; stick to the values and in the end everyone is conventionalist. Situation ethics deals with the situation. It's the action that brings the greatest number of love (agape) to the greatest number of people, which is good. With situation ethics you cannot prescribe rules but must make decisions to deal with the situations. It is a way of imitating Jesus or Gods love. The strengths of moral

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  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Should euthanasia be legalised in the UK?

Should Euthanasia be legalised in the UK? Usually, ethics and morality-related topics are held responsible for yielding most of the controversial issues among societies. Those issues tend to vary from one place to another. One of the core concerns the Western world has been elaborately debating about is euthanasia, or, sometimes, preferably called physician-assisted suicide. Whilst involuntary euthanasia is found to be consensually morally impermissible, people still argue the acceptance and the moral aspect of voluntary euthanasia. Furthermore, passive form of euthanasia doesn't seem to fit our definition given at the onset since it results sometimes in a rather painful death and prolonged suffering. Therefore, active euthanasia seems to draw the most attention among activists and lawmakers. Is active euthanasia ethically acceptable? Should it be legalized? From my perspective, it's my belief that euthanasia should be legalised in this country. What if an individual would want to carry on living such a hard life to the extent were they cannot move or talk and have to have the burden of having someone spend their entire life attending to their needs. It's very understandable that they would not want this, as you or me may agree. But then if they did decide they wanted to die, it is not even legal to expect euthanasia in Britain. Is it really fair to send a highly

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  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Explain what is meant by Moral Relativism

Explain what is meant by Moral Relativism Moral relativism is the belief that morality does not relate to any absolute standards of morality to which everyone should comply with. It believes there are circumstances and situations in which actions or behaviour, that is usually considered to be 'wrong', can be considered 'right'. Many of these circumstances are to do with religion and cultures, traditions are frowned upon by outsiders but are acceptable to those within the culture, moral relativism respects their views and beliefs. Moral relativism is the opposite of absolutism. Absolutism believes that there are right and wrong rules which apply to all people all the time. It also believes that an immoral act is intrinsically wrong; it is not made wrong because of its situation or results. An absolutist would not look at a situation from ones perspective; they would look at it objectively and not take into account the consequences. It is deontological as they believe it is ones duty to act in that specific way. Directly opposing absolutism, Fletcher says that no actions in themselves are wrong it is their results that make them wrong and it is love that decides the good from the bad. This love is known as 'Agape' and is a self giving love for all. A clear example of the difference is abortion. A young girl has been raped and is now pregnant with a child; however this child

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