نشریه معرفت اخلاقی
پیاپی 9 (زمستان 1390)

One of the most basic concepts in Aristotle's philosophy of ethics is virtue, and understanding it can pave the way to understand and evaluate Aristotle’s moral system. On the other hand, St. Thomas Aquinas, most prominent follower of Aristotle in the Medieval Ages, seems to have approached virtue, follow the same way Aristotle followed, but the difference between the two is that Aquinas lends a transcendent meaning to the previous notion of virtue. The main question of this essay is what position virtue has in Aristotle's moral system, and whether or not the meaning of virtue in Aquinas's discipline is identical with that of Aristotle. Having noticed that Aristotle has offered a human, worldly, and rational definition of happiness, good, and virtue and that Aquinas strenuously strove to adjust these concepts to the philosophical- Christian system which he advocated, the present paper tries to answer the aforementioned questions. Finally the author briefly analyzes the view of each of and criticizes these two philosophers.

Moral absolutism implies that some values are valid regardless of the individual, place, and time and the comprehensiveness that characterizes it cannot be harmed by what people like or dislike. Regarding the relationship between absolutism and applied ethics two things should be considered: first, the existence of moral competitive conditions together with adherence to absolutism is justifiable; secondly, it is by abiding by this principle that we can reach a solution, because preferring an action is impossible without reasoning and the possibility of reasoning is realized through absolutism. Furthermore, the solution of the problem of competitive condition will be possible if there is a definite aim. According to absolutism, this aim does exist. In order to solve the problems of applied ethics first, the preliminary competitive condition resulting from misconceiving the question should be eliminated by observing all the provisions of the subject matter of judgment. Secondly, if competitive condition remains after having observed all the provisions, then one side has to be preferred to the other by turning to the legal and rational qualitative preferences and thus the problem can be resolved.

In his educational thought Farabi, inspired by the principles of Islam, believes that man is created by and return to God. Farabi, who believes that ethics is variable and so it is considered as something acquired, no virtue that man has is innate and no man is born perfect, holds that no one can attain happiness and perfection without receiving education through voluntary actions. He proposes two ways to acquire various virtues; the first is receiving "education" for accomplishing theoretical virtues and the second is "disciplinary action" for accomplishing moral and practical virtues. He maintains that if one wants to achieve happiness one should know what happiness, is what the factors of happiness are, and what action to take. Farabi's educational thought is influenced by his own philosophical approach, which is more or less abstract. Therefore, this idea seems idealistic and rather unattainable.

Identity- personality and behavioral ideas of moral development are found in the framework of two different psychological traditions, i.e. behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Behaviorists are intensively objectivistic and focus on visible behavior, whereas psychoanalysts focus on studying unconscious mind and emotions. This basic difference in the subject matter, which has effected methodology, extends to moral development. The present paper examines the nature and process of moral development in the light of these two traditions and reviews the ideas which are found in the framework of these traditions. There is, in fact, a kind of convergence between the new ideas of these traditions; psychoanalysts increasingly show interest in the effect of environmental and cultural factors whereas behaviorists recognize constitutional factors; cognitive, emotional, and personality. A comparison between these two traditions can elucidate the new approaches in the framework of each of the two.

The relationship between ethics and politics in Mulla Sadra's thought is considered among the subjects which is worth considering in the philosophy of ethics and philosophy of Islamic politics. Mulla Sadra believes that it is possible to express our view about transcendent ethics as well as transcendent politics within the framework of transcendent theosophy. According to transcendent ethics, a person can establish his/her moral identity through making rational decision, and so the higher the rationality the nobler the morality. Besides, transcendent politics is a kind of politics which is completely based on the sacred Islamic law and monotheism in order to achieve man's real happiness. It is obvious that this type of politics interacts with transcendent ethics represented in divine morality and compliance with divine morality. In Mulla Sadra's thought, ethics is considered as the essence and spirit of politics and politics can be at the service of ethics and its main aim is achieving "happiness".

The present paper tries to study moral ought-toes and ought-not-toes in national media, using an analytical- documentary approach. The main question of this essay is: what moral values and ought-toes relating media, exist in Islam and in the national media of Islamic Republic of Iran, in particular? "Media ethics" is an introduction to a theoretical framework, which media agents have to observe. "Religious media" is a kind of guiding media centered on ethics and religiousity, so that theocenticism, religion, religious and moral doctrines and the knowledge of the Fourteen Infallibles are the criteria of every activity of this media. The most important values with which the national media in the Islamic Republic Government of Iran is to comply are: accountability, professional courage and honesty, right –orientation, presenting realities and avoiding distortion and manipulation, truthfulness, objectivity, reliability and validity of the programs, avoiding media blitz, observing audience's sanctity, observing the Islamic Government’s interest, safe guarding privacy, trustworthiness, the right of accessing to useful and constructive information, promoting noble moral traits, and illegality of censorship and self-censorship.

Euthanasia, the practice of killing without pain a person who is suffering from an incurable disease so that the person can die with dignity, is one of the hotly debated areas in medical ethics. This issue has been the subject of speculation during the recent decades in response to the medical development and conscious attempts of the social movements which are interested in this issue. Euthanasia is of different types considering the difference between the moral, juridical, and legal nature. The difference between the two main types of euthanasia, that is; active euthanasia and passive euthanasia, is that in the first a person is killed because he/she suffers from an incurable disease and severe pain, while in the second he/she is left in the lurch until he/she dies. Most religions reject the idea of active euthanasia, but they have a more flexible stance towards some other types. The proponents of euthanasia insist more than any other group on self-determination while the opponents provide ample justification ranging from moral and religious arguments to functional concerns.