Gap between reason and emotion

Are reason and emotion equally necessary in justifying moral decision? Moral decision is the principle of concerning right and wrong or good or bad behavior. "Morality is one of those basic aspects of humanity, like sexuality and easting, that cant fit into one or two academic fields" (Jonathan Haidt) How do we justify moral decisions? There are many forms of justifying moral decisions such through the epistemologies of reasons and emotions. However, even though both reasons and emotions are important, they are not equally necessary in justifying moral decision. Reason is a cause or an explanation for something that has happened or that somebody has done. It is also a fact that validates a particular action. Moreover, through reasons, it is also the power of the mind to think in a logical way, and to understand and have opinions. On the other hand, emotion is a strong feeling such as love, fear, or anger that is the part of a person's character that consists of feelings, magnifying certainty on a personal stance. As a result, in this essay, I shall explain how reason is more necessary in justifying moral decisions rather than through emotion, even though emotions are added with reason that will result in a strong justification of moral decision. Reason is a strong way of justifying moral decision as it is supported through logical rationale that deduces uncertainty of truth.

  • Word count: 1431
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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Explain how Macintyre's or Aristotle's account of a life lived in accordance with virtues could be applied to the issue of consumerism.

Explain how Macintyre's or Aristotle's account of a life lived in accordance with virtues could be applied to the issue of consumerism (20) Emma James U6H Aristotle's ethics emphasizes the importance of reason and virtue for good moral character. Aristotle argued that every action has a purpose (telos), and that the good is the aim of every action. He went on and gave two classifications of good: Good as a means; good as an ends. He believed that happiness is the ultimate good or ultimate purpose for what other purposes are sought for. Aristotle believed that maturity is a prerequisite for the study of ethics. He believed that ethics has its own level of precision just as other sciences have their own level of precision. He also believed that ethics only enquired into the good for man. In searching for what is good for man, Aristotle rejected pleasure, honour, wealth and life of contemplation. Aristotle defined virtue as one's capacity to do something well that perfects one's nature. Vice, on the other hand, is the opposite of virtue. It is also the capacity of one's character to modify ones passions and so forth. He said that virtue is like habit or like a mean between excess and defect. According to Aristotle, to be virtuous meant to reason well. The purpose of man is to think rationally out of habit, in other words so doing you'd develop a rational disposition.

  • Word count: 1307
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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Explain how these teachings might influence the actions of a believer?

Explain how these teachings might influence the actions of a believer? The teachings of a Christian could affect their beliefs about going to war in many ways as those who agree with the war would be willing to participate and those who disagree with going to war because of there beliefs will protest against going to war. Some Christians believe that war is justifiable under certain regulations, they say that it is acceptable if it follows the just war theory which states that we can go to war as a last resort as long as everything has been tried to solve the problems of the war. They also may believe war is acceptable because of the old testament of the Bible in which God is seen as quite an angry character and throughout the testament there is a lot of references to people getting ready for battle this is shown under Jeremiah 50:21 in the bible 'Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Persue, kill and completely destroy them, declares the LORD. Do everything I have commanded you.' This leads many Christians to believe war is acceptable they prey for support when going to war for them and for every other troop there. However even though agreeing to war they do have rules, in 1983 the Church of England agreed that although nuclear weapons were a bad thing however they have a duty to protect there citizens from other countries with nuclear weapons. They said

  • Word count: 900
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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How can we know if at all that our behaviour is ethical

THIS DOCUMENT WAS DOWNLOADED FROM COURSEWORK.INFO - THE UK'S COURSEWORK DATABASE CLICK HERE TO VISIT COURSWORK.INFO HOW CAN WE KNOW IF AT ALL THAT OUR BEHAVIOUR IS ETHICAL? When was the last time you thought something like "I wonder if it was right on my part to do that"? "Did I do the right thing?" Most people ask themselves this question after having done something that when their actions putsactions put some pressure on their conscience. But before one carries out this type of action one makes a decision that is referred to as Often, people's actions are based upon an 'ethical judgement'. Many argue that ethics are rules of conduct that are deemed justifiable according toare determined by behavioural standardsrules set by cultures, religions and societies. However, But for example a murderer criminal wouldn't think "oh, I can't kill him, my society forbids it"; he/she makes a decision alone. It can Thereforetherefore be argued that our ethics are nothing but personal opinions that are influenced by religion, emotion and culture. So it is incorrect to say that one 'knows' that one's behaviour is ethical, one can only compare it to the opinion one has formed on the rightness/wrongness of the deed. The environment each individual grows up in is different. Different cultures, different religions, different societies. At a personal level, the ethical judgements made

  • Word count: 1479
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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How can we know, if at all, that our behaviour is ethical?

How can we know, if at all, that our behaviour is ethical? People base their ethical behaviour on a predetermined set of morals. These morals may have come from past experience or may have been set through what people believe in, their religious beliefs for example. Throughout history different theories have appeared that base themselves on this question, whether or not our behaviour is ethical and how we can be sure it is. Philosophers have debated this subject and come up with their own reasons as to why a person's behaviour can be judged to be ethical. According to this every person, society or religion has a different idea as to what ethical behaviour is; therefore we have difficulty in judging whether or not the way in which we act is ethical. An example of differences in ethical behaviour can be found in religion. If we take an extreme Muslim society such as Afghanistan and compare it with a Western country such as Great Britain, major differences can already be seen. What is acceptable and what is not depends entirely on the religion you follow or what one believes in. In Afghanistan, the authorities think that it is acceptable to repress women, to the extent that the have public executions in an arena that was supposed to be used for football matches. This is accepted as a suitable punishment for women and some men when they are found to be opposing the Taleban

  • Word count: 1492
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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How can you or your society decide ethically which knowledge should or should not be pursued?

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ESSAY: Name: Matthew Jackson School: Wesley College Glen Waverly Campus Candidate number: D0612-011 Topic: How can you or your society decide ethically which knowledge should or should not be pursued? Word count: 1599 HOW CAN YOU OR YOUR SOCIETY DECIDE ETHICALLY WHICH KNOWLEDGE SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT BE PURSUED? In modern society there is a constant pursuit of knowledge. With the relentless momentum that our quest for knowledge has in modern times it is necessary to distinguish exactly what knowledge can be ethically sought. Given the many conflicting schools of philosophy that dictate to us what is and is not ethical, it is difficult to determine what is the best way for us to decide, but while all methods are flawed, there is doubtless one technique that is the least so, this we shall determine. This problem has been pertinent to science of late, given recent advances into the field of stem-cell research, though its is relevant to many areas of knowledge: sensitive research in history or the ethicality of a psychology experiment. However deciding whether the pursuit of knowledge is ethical does not have to be nearly so broad-reaching, it relates to the emotive ways of knowing as much as the perceptive: I was talking with Tom1, a friend of mine. It became evident that Tom believed Sal (my present girlfriend) was being unfaithful to me, in fact that

  • Word count: 1728
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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“Discuss therelevance of management ethics in a modern business context”.

"Discuss the relevance of management ethics in a modern business context" Ethics can be defined as moral principles or beliefs about what is right or wrong. These beliefs guide individuals in their dealings with other individuals and groups and provide a basis for deciding whether behaviour is right and proper (Beauchamp et al., 1979). From a managerial perspective ethics are able to guide managers to making moral decisions in a variety of situations. An ethical decision is a "decision that reasonable or typical stakeholders would find acceptable because it aids stakeholders, the organisation, or society. By contrast, an unethical decision is a decision a manager would prefer to disguise or hide from other people because it enables a company or a particular individual to gain at the expense of society or other stakeholders (Jones et al., 1998). Therefore it seems that in order for organisations to function fairly and in an appropriate manner ethical behaviour must be adopted. However it is often difficult for managers to determine whether decisions that are made are ethical or unethical. So it is common practice for a code of ethics to be enforced within a firm. This consists of a formal document that states an organisation's primary values and ethical rules it expects managers and operatives to follow (Decenzo, 2002). The code of ethics is only likely to work as

  • Word count: 1030
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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Explain Why There Is a Need For World Development

Explain why there is a need for world development The world today has over 6 billion people. Nearly 3 billion, which is half of the world's population, are considered poor. There are two types of countries. There are the developed countries (MEDC) like USA or the U.K. Then there are the less developed countries (LEDC) examples of these are Zimbabwe and India, Uganda, Somalia and Bangladesh. World development is the expansion in education, the environment and health services. Development is a way of measuring how rich or poor a country is. The reason why we need world development is because if the world isn't improving in any way there will be no progress therefore there will be no results. If in a poor continent for example Africa, the percentage of people who are educated is very low. The environment which is already in a bad state will remain the same or even become worse and then the health services will suffer. It is only if the world will develop that changes will happen. Countries become less developed because of a number of different reasons. The most common reason is being hit with a natural disaster such as a flood or an earthquake. An area which suffers from this is Bangladesh; an area that had heavy floods in 1998. The terrible floods shattered the lives of 30 million people. A very recent example of a natural disaster is the Asian Tsunami, this was caused be an

  • Word count: 560
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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Explain the theory of Virtue Ethics.

Laura Barrett > Explain the theory of Virtue Ethics Aristotle originally introduced virtue Ethics to society in ancient Greek times. Virtue Ethics tells us that we should look at the character of the person instead of the actions or duties a person performs. Many moral theories work out what the right or good thing to do is. They convey that a set of principles for working out the best choice. Virtue theory rejects the moral theories that suggest that there are no moral laws and when moral statements are simply emotive expressions. Virtue theory provides an alternative route for drawing on the tradition of moral philosophy in a way that's different from the other theories. Rather than looking for rules, it looks at the fundamental issue of what it means to be human. Additionally virtue ethics concentrates on what the right thing to do. In addition it implies on how you can be a better person. It is about defining good people and the qualities that make them good. The roots of virtue theory are mainly in the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle argues that "whenever we do something, we do it to gain an end, and that ultimate end of all ends is the chief good, the greatest good." Even though it is a teleological theory there is another important principle. In order to achieve that greatest good at the end we must practice hitting the target. By practicing we improve

  • Word count: 1239
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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Who do you think is more important - you, your family or others?

Who do you think is more important – you, your family or others? In life we constantly get told to sometimes put people ahead of us, in terms of being nice and polite; but then we get told to be selfish at times, however in a life threatening situation who would you pick? In this essay I am going to explore different sides to this question, in a scenario in which you would have to pick someone, who would it be? Firstly I am going to be talking about myself, why I would or wouldn’t pick myself in a particular circumstance. I think I am very important in life, as every decision I make will affect me. Things I say or do reflect back on me as a person and throughout life I will probably pay more attention to myself as I grow older. I am quite important because all the choices I make will make an impact on me. Depending on the situation I would pick myself. For example if I was trying out for a sports team and it was between myself and somebody else to make the team I would make myself look better so I would get the place. In this kind of scenario I would be selfish because I really want something I would go out of my way to get that, especially something competitive; I would put myself first. In a situation where simply I am standing in a line at a supermarket and someone behind me only has one item, I would let them go in front of me because they only have one item which

  • Word count: 726
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)
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