نشریه معرفت اخلاقی
پیاپی 3 (تابستان 1389)

The present paper uses a theoretical approach, aiming at an explanation of relationship between ethics and philosophy of ethics. After explaining the nature of ethics and defining ethics, it deals with recognition of different spheres of ethical studies. In addition to explaining the domain of philosophical studies on ethics, the relationship between descriptive ethics, normative ethics and meta-ethics has been investigated. Finally, variousmodels of interaction between ethical theory and practical ethics are compared and the selected theory is specified.

Henry Sejwick holds that autism is a moral theory resembling utilitarianism. Adherent of utilitarianism hold that the individual must seek to maximize goodness of all or most of human beings. The adherents of autism, however, believe that the only goodness that must be sought by the individual is his own goodness. This autism, called moral autism, must be distinguished from the empirical theory stating that human beings are seeking to maximize their own goodness. Moral autism can be in agreement with the behavior benefiting others, because mutual relationship is the best way for promoting goodness;but adherents of autism cannot accept the altruistic justification for these kinds of relationships. Indeed, altruism wants the other's goodness just for their own seek, while adherents of autism stress that human's ultimate goal must be merely his own goodness.Christianity regards "self-love" as a part of our nature, and its effects as being limited. In many views and ideologies, self-love has been called the origin of all human desires and movements. However, things like self-sacrifice and devotion can be a negation to this claim.

The present article seeks to illuminate the way leading to man's progress and man's value in his individual life and in his social life. Man has an individual identity and a social identity. The movement leading to man's progress and man's value in his individual life is determined by two things: "nearness to God" and "agreeable life" or, to be more precise, nearness to the Absolute Perfectness. The more perfect man is, the nearer to God ho will be. Whoever is more dependent on and more needy of God, is more perfect and nearer to God.Theologists define life as a compound of perception and power. A conscious and powerful living creature has the power of knowlodge and manipulation. The life of living creatures are of various levels. The more share man has of hese two characteristics, the nearer to the real meaning of life he will be. In as far as the social aspect of life is concerned, man's value is measured by man's aclievements. The more significant and greater the aclievements are, man's influence existence will be greater and man will be more successful in social aspects.

Ethics is the essence of Judaism. However, in view of the problems stated on the Jewish ethics, it is impossible to find a comprehensive definition of Jewish ethics. Nevertheless, there is an extensive and valuable collection called 'Jewish Ethics'. The Jewish ethical principles were explained, for the first time, in Mose's Ten Commandments; they were, then, developed in the Laws of Torah and Hebrew scriptures. After that, Hebraic prophets reviewed these principles, and they were developed again in the verbal laws ofMishnah. These were then analyzed in Gomorrah and Midrash, and were reinterpreted in the Middle Ages using philosophical and mystical terms. Thus, the written works on Jewish ethics are usually divided into four major groups; these are a) works relating to Torah, b) Rabbinical works, c) works on Middle Ages, and d) Modern works.Some of the doctrines of Jewish social ethics are as follows: affection towards human beings, humbleness and modesty, helping the poor, justice and truthfulness, sacredness of life, moderation, and forgiveness.

Human's perfection is the outcome of his own determination. He may actuate his potentials only through his physical actions. Sadr al-Mutallehin, the founder of transcendental wisdom, in addition to theorizing on human's ultimate perfection, which he knows as the "annihilation in Allah" or obtaining intuitive knowledge of Allah, has spoken of the factors facilitating or hindering human's achieving perfection.The present paper deals with an investigation of factors affecting human's perfection in Mulla Sadra's view. Before stating these factors, however, it deals with four other issues as an the way an action affects achieving perfection, necessity of sincerity in one's action, status and ranks of actions, necessity of having a teacher.In Mulla Sadra's view, the factors effective in human's ultimate perfection are as follows: awakening, determination, legitimate austerity, divine knowledge, paying attention to God and neglecting all other than Him, divine affection and love, mentioning God, and contemplation.

The relationship between ethics and media, and how they interact with one another are among the central themes obsessing the minds of scholars in recent few decades. Today the interaction between these two realities, two contexts, two institutions, and two cultural and technological elements have become the themes for scientific studies and scholarly reflections, and the meeting point of these two have been discussed and scrutinized from various viewpoints of sociology, communication, ethics, culture and so on. This interaction has also related to the third cycle, i.e. culture. Indeed, culture isthe context for various relationships, including relationship between ethics and media. Two compound conceptions of high frequency, i.e. "media ethics" and "ethical media", have emerged from a concern for fashion of interaction between ethics and media.This paper uses an analytical and theoretical approach, aiming at an investigation of the role of ethics in media and the way they interact.

Some of the contemporary western thinkers believe that religions, including Islam, are the main factor of destructing environment and create the environmental crisis. The present article rejects this claim, proving that environmental ethics, which contemporary westerners have thought of observing, have been already dealt with in religious and Islamic sources and teachings. Among these, the most subtle points of environmental ethics have been widely presented in Imam Ali's way of life, especially in Nahj al-Balagha. Some of these points are as follows: paying attention and attempting to improvement of land and the whole nature, pieces of advice on the rights pertaining to agriculture and animal husbandry, observing justice in treating animals and their offspring, avoiding unlimited use of natural resources, and refraining from harassing living creatures, etc. Besides, Imam Ali has presented objective methods for preserving environment. In Nahj al- Balagha, Imam Ali has precisely dealt with regulating the behaviors of hisagents in using animals. The present article has investigated those points presented in Nahj al-Balagha.