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The God of Spinoza

T.L.S. Sprigge

in The God of Metaphysics

This chapter begins with an account of the life of Spinoza. It then discusses his great work, the Ethics, and the proof of its fundamental claim that there is just one substance, and that everything ... More

This chapter begins with an account of the life of Spinoza. It then discusses his great work, the Ethics, and the proof of its fundamental claim that there is just one substance, and that everything else which in any manner exists is a mode of it. There follows an account of Spinoza’s form of determinism and its ethical and religious significance and of his distinction between rational and irrational action. Finally there is a discussion of Spinoza’s views on institutionalized religion, and on Jesus. The chapter ends by asking whether Spinozism offers a ‘personal religion’.Less

Unimaginable: A Short Digression

Aviad Kleinberg

in The Sensual God: How the Senses Make the Almighty Senseless

A short ethical discussion of the benefits of slaying in the name of God.

(Re)Framing Ethics at Work

George Cheney, Daniel J. Lair, Dean Ritz, and Brenden E. Kendall

in Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

This chapter explores how we have limited our own understanding and application of ethics at work through our everyday talk about it. The chapter begins by arguing that how we frame ethics is as ... More

This chapter explores how we have limited our own understanding and application of ethics at work through our everyday talk about it. The chapter begins by arguing that how we frame ethics is as important, and sometimes more important, than the specific ethical decisions we make. The chapter explains how a perspective on ethics that is grounded in communication and rhetoric can illuminate how we unnecessarily restrain the influence of ethics at work. The chapter makes the case for examining popular culture and everyday talk for clues to how ethics is treated in our professional lives. Turning the saying “talk is cheap” on its head, the chapter urges a serious consideration of what it means to say, for example, that one's work is “just a job” or that we should “let the market decide.” Thus, the reader is urged to find ethical implications in diverse messages and cases, ranging from codes and handbooks, to television shows and Internet advertising, to everyday conversation, including sayings that become part of who we are.Less

Working for a Good Life

George Cheney, Daniel J. Lair, Dean Ritz, and Brenden E. Kendall

in Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

This chapter addresses work as an important domain of ethical talk, arguing that work and the talk about it are unavoidably ethical in nature. The chapter considers the multiple ways work is ... More

This chapter addresses work as an important domain of ethical talk, arguing that work and the talk about it are unavoidably ethical in nature. The chapter considers the multiple ways work is meaningful for people and the various roles it plays in their lives, examining historical and cross‐cultural variations. Especially important in this regard are the ways “work” and “life” are commonly separated‐‐but sometimes brought together‐‐in contemporary (post)industrial society. How work is bounded and framed in everyday thought and talk has enormous implications for the ethical possibilities that will be seen by any person or in any job. The chapter explains various ethical frames that apply to work, and their practical implications for making ethics more visible in everyday (work) life.Less

Being a Professional: Problems and Promises

George Cheney, Daniel J. Lair, Dean Ritz, and Brenden E. Kendall

in Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

This chapter addresses the domain of the professional, taking seriously the notion that the professional is personal, in addition to being social, political, and ethical. The chapter traces the ... More

This chapter addresses the domain of the professional, taking seriously the notion that the professional is personal, in addition to being social, political, and ethical. The chapter traces the development of modern professional classes, particularly as they implicate individual and collective moral practice. In certain ways, formal professions have the capacity to elevate moral practice and create barriers to ethical visions. This chapter considers the various sides of professional life, takes a second look at its ethical claims, and exposes some of the problems with what we usually think of as an unmitigated positive force in society; that is, professionalism. As part of this evaluation, the chapter probes issues of professional style and examines the categories into which individuals and whole segments of society are divided. The chapter concludes with a call to reconsider the meaning of “career.”Less

Seeking Something More in the Market

George Cheney, Daniel J. Lair, Dean Ritz, and Brenden E. Kendall

in Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

This chapter focuses on ethics at the market level, arguing that, contrary to popular wisdom, the market is not amoral. In typical contemporary framings, the market is presumed to be both inherently ... More

This chapter focuses on ethics at the market level, arguing that, contrary to popular wisdom, the market is not amoral. In typical contemporary framings, the market is presumed to be both inherently good-as in, the best way to do business and organize society-and yet amoral, in terms of bracketing out or holding at bay ethical judgments. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of the meanings of the market in everyday talk in addition to including accounts of historical and contemporary cases where the presumed “super-agency” of the market led people and societies astray. The chapter also reviews relevant research on happiness, especially as it bears on conceptions of economic productivity and success. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the possibilities for the ethical reform of the market through making visible what we mean when we invoke the term “market.”Less

Finding New Ways to Talk about Everyday Ethics

George Cheney, Daniel J. Lair, Dean Ritz, and Brenden E. Kendall

in Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

This chapter returns to questions of happiness, eudaimonia, virtue, and the reframing of ethics in work and life. Reviewing some of the key points of the previous chapters, it explains the value of ... More

This chapter returns to questions of happiness, eudaimonia, virtue, and the reframing of ethics in work and life. Reviewing some of the key points of the previous chapters, it explains the value of looking beyond specific ethical decisions to the very ways ethics are typically approached and framed. Ethics, it asserts, is relevant even in instances that are not readily identified as requiring ethical decisions. The chapter argues that rather than thinking about ethics as work, as something over and above everyday work life, professionals would do well to embrace ethics as relevant to their entire array of everyday practices. Ironically, as ethics becomes “non‐special,” its application can lead to greater happiness. The chapter offers several contemporary cases to illustrate a new, non‐heroic framing of virtue at work. Through this reframing, a revived and revised theory of virtue ethics can enhance conversation about ethics, especially when we are profoundly questioning how we do business.Less

How Should Ethics Relate to (the Rest of) Philosophy? Moore's Legacy

Stephen Darwall

in Metaethics after Moore

In the first chapter of Principia Ethica, ‘The Subject-Matter of Ethics’, Moore spends the first four sections explaining his conception of the field of ethics. In these passages, he refers to an ... More

In the first chapter of Principia Ethica, ‘The Subject-Matter of Ethics’, Moore spends the first four sections explaining his conception of the field of ethics. In these passages, he refers to an ‘ideal of ethical science’ (56) which he divides into two main parts. First, there are semantic and related metaphysical questions about the meanings of moral terms (and the concepts they express) and, second, there are questions about what sorts of items possess the properties which moral terms denote. Two theses emerge from Moore's discussion of the subject matter of ethics. First is the independence thesis, according to which semantic and related metaphysical questions — questions of metaethics — can be pursued independently of and are properly prior to enquiry into substantive matters about the kinds of items that are good or bad, right or wrong, virtuous or vicious. Second, Moore holds a certain primacy thesis, according to which the concept of goodness (and badness) is more fundamental than and can be used to define the concepts of rightness (and wrongness) and virtue (and vice). Thus, for Moore, the study of ethics, properly conducted, should begin with an enquiry focused on the concept of goodness. This chapter challenges both the claims of independence and priority. It argues that although metaethics and normative ethics are properly focused on different issues, they need to be brought into dynamic relation with one another in order to produce a systematic and defensible philosophical ethics. This mutual dependence is owing to the fact that issues of normativity are at the center of the concerns of both metaethics and normative ethics.Less

Moore on the Right, the Good, and Uncertainty

Michael Smith

in Metaethics after Moore

This chapter proposes a conception of Practical Ethics which ties what epistemically limited agents are to do on some occasion not only to limits on their non-evaluative information about how much ... More

This chapter proposes a conception of Practical Ethics which ties what epistemically limited agents are to do on some occasion not only to limits on their non-evaluative information about how much intrinsic value would result from various actions, but also to epistemic limits on their evaluative information about what has intrinsic value. The chapter is organized as follows. The first section spells out Moore's view of the way in which uncertainty affects the proposed definition of rightness in terms of the maximization of value. The second section compares Moore's view with an alternative put forward more recently by Frank Jackson (1991). The third and fourth sections present the author's own account and say why it should be preferred to both Moore's and Jackson's views. To anticipate, it turns out that Moore and Jackson are both right about something and wrong about something. The correct view combines elements from both.Less

James, Clifford, and the Scientific Conscience

David A. Hollinger

in After Cloven Tongues of Fire: Protestant Liberalism in Modern American History

This chapter presents a comparative reading of W. K. Clifford's 1877 treatise, “The Ethics of Belief,” and William James' 1897 essay, “The Will to Believe.” It provides an interpretation of each in ... More

This chapter presents a comparative reading of W. K. Clifford's 1877 treatise, “The Ethics of Belief,” and William James' 1897 essay, “The Will to Believe.” It provides an interpretation of each in the distinctive contexts of England in the 1870s and New England in the 1890s. It argues that Clifford displayed more sensitivity than James did to the consequences of belief. This is an ironic reversal of roles in the story of a great pragmatist who insisted that “the whole defense of religious faith hinges upon” the action that faith requires or inspires. James' “The Will to Believe” should be understood not only as an artifact of its author's agony about the fate of Christianity in the age of science, but also as a product of his political complacency. Clifford had a much more modern understanding than James did of the function of belief systems in society and politics.Less

Ethics and Research Methodology

Peter Lyons and Howard J. Doueck

in The Dissertation: From Beginning to End

This chapter describes ethical issues in social research including discussion of the NASW Code of Ethics, Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes, and requirements for the protection of human ... More

This chapter describes ethical issues in social research including discussion of the NASW Code of Ethics, Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes, and requirements for the protection of human subjects. In addition, quantitative research methods; qualitative research methods; mixed-methods research designs; experimental, quasi-experimental, explanatory, exploratory, and descriptive research; program evaluation; and the relative merits of disparate models of research are also presented. The requirements of rigor in both quantitative and qualitative studies and evaluating the degree of fit between research strategies and problems under investigation are also discussed.Less