I don't quite understand. If virtue is moral it should imply some kind of action with respect to others. I don't know how a character that doesn't behave well towards others can be moral.Virtue is more concerned with generally building a good moral character, and so seems to apply even to acts where other people are not involved. — ChatteringMonkey
There’s a big difference between having a child drowning in a pool right in front of you and knowing there are unspecified children dying far away in Africa at this moment. That kid in the pool can be saved by you and probably by you only with only a minor effort on your part, and if you don’t do it, it really is as if you were the one who killed it. You may argue that the distance, six feet away versus ten thousand miles, is only relative and therefore the principle is the same but when a fellow human being has come within your immediate range of action, he is yours, so to speak. The only obligations that we have are those that we have taken upon us through our previous movements. You have rented a house, and you are under obligation to pay the rent, you have crashed into someone’s car and you must pay for the damage, you have walked into the perimeter of a drowning child and you are obligated to save it.to try to give an example of an action that is morally virtuous, but one that is not an obligation. My first instinct was that charitable financial donation is one such example, however I found myself finding it easy to justify this as an obligation, using Peter Singer's example of witnessing a child drowning and not intervening; — JacobPhilosophy
A try: Virtuosity means seeking the opportunity to be a hero.I suppose I'm not going to find an objectively, exclusively virtuous action as it is very subjective. — JacobPhilosophy
I don't quite understand. If virtue is moral it should imply some kind of action with respect to others. I don't know how a character that doesn't behave well towards others can be moral.
Could you explain a little more the opposition between moral virtue and moral action? Thank you. — David Mo
This is true, although it was not an obligation for you to inform me, only virtuous. :) Or was it? I suppose I'm not going to find an objectively, exclusively virtuous action as it is very subjective. I just struggle to appreciate arguments in specific fields when the foundation of obligation Vs virtue has little definition. — JacobPhilosophy
If it were your obligation to achieve the ultimate minimalization of suffering in the world, what exactly would your obligations be? An obligation must be definite. If you have to do this, it is an obligation. If it would be nice if you did it, but you don’t really have to, it’s not an obligation.I may vaguely connotate this point with the sentiment that it is an obligation to dedicate one's life to the ultimate minimalisation of suffering in the world — JacobPhilosophy
For the Ancient Greeks, morality was understood as being concerned with wisdom, not truth. Aristotle always said ethics is a practical science, not a precise one, and so we should not expect mathematical certainty. — Wolfman
Moral obligation come from a community or collective, whereas virtue is more centered around the individual. — ChatteringMonkey
Moral obligation and psychic necessity are different concepts. Moral obligation functions on the level of duty and necessity on the level of causality. Therefore, moral obligation implies free will. You can do what you think is your duty or not for different motivations. If you are psychically determined to kill your father, you will kill your father yes or yes. You can do bad things even though you think they are bad in a moral sense. Because of selfishness, unwillingness, bad passions or other reasons.The idea of obligation either to perform or not perform a morally significant act flies against the principle of freedom of will in re moral responsibility. — TheMadFool
The Greek tradition was not uniform. There were several opposing tendencies. The Platonic tradition was one of the most important. As you know it reached Hypatia of Alexandria or St. Augustine in the Christian era through Neoplatonism. You have no reason to exclude it.And plato was no example of the traditional Greek view on morality... — ChatteringMonkey
I am talking about the civic virtue of the revolutionaries and enlightened people who exalted the duty of citizenship towards the country and the people. See the famous paintings of David, The Oath of the Horatii and The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons . They are very graphic representations of that civic philosophy that they exemplified in the Roman virtue, which was not individual, but collective.I don't know what civic virtue or modern revolutionary morality you are referring to? — ChatteringMonkey
Every moral system includes the individual and the collective. Whether it is a system based on virtue, duty or consequences. When you talk about "it's wider" I don't know what you mean. If you don't mind, you could explain. Thank you.Again, I'm not saying that virtue can have no eye for the collective, I'm just saying that it goes further than that.... it a wider idea. — ChatteringMonkey
Moral obligation and psychic necessity are different concepts. Moral obligation functions on the level of duty and necessity on the level of causality. Therefore, moral obligation implies free will. You can do what you think is your duty or not for different motivations. If you are psychically determined to kill your father, you will kill your father yes or yes. You can do bad things even though you think they are bad in a moral sense. Because of selfishness, unwillingness, bad passions or other reasons.
It is another thing to claim that every psychic decision is determined, but this is a different problem. — David Mo
Every moral system includes the individual and the collective. Whether it is a system based on virtue, duty or consequences. When you talk about "it's wider" I don't know what you mean. If you don't mind, you could explain. Thank you. — David Mo
The Greek tradition was not uniform. There were several opposing tendencies. The Platonic tradition was one of the most important. As you know it reached Hypatia of Alexandria or St. Augustine in the Christian era through Neoplatonism. You have no reason to exclude it. — David Mo
Therefore, moral obligation implies free will. You can do what you think is your duty or not for different motivations. — David Mo
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