نشریه معرفت اخلاقی
پیاپی 17 (بهار و تابستان 1394)

Justifying moral propositions is considered one of the most important epistemological issues in the field of philosophy of ethics. Various views have been offered about justifying moral rules in the position of proof. Reputation seeking is among the views on philosophy of ethics, mainly proposed by Muslim philosophers. This study seeks to investigate the mentioned view on justifying moral propositions. The results show that reputation qua cannot contribute to justifying moral propositions but it can only contribute justifying credit of its real cause.

In the discussions on business morality, fairness is considered to have a more specific sense than that of justice and it is the cause for granting trade benefits to poor countries. Raising the question about the relationship between the two concepts of justice and fairness in Islam, this paper differentiates between the three meanings of fairness in the sense of justice, equality and tolerance. The research hypothesis suggests that according to the criteria derived from the narrations, fair trade requires showing permissiveness and granting discounts in transaction. The results of this analytical study show that, in Islam, tolerative fairness has a more specific sense than that of justice and requires a kind of benevolence. Fairness needs benevolence because the criteria referred to in the traditions (doing things which we like others to do for us), has a lower rank than that of generous help and self-sacrifice. Accordingly, fairness in commercial transactions which requires permissiveness in transaction and granting discount in the profit is prefrential. This conception of fairness can influence some economic policies including determining commercial tariffs, product pricing, and market regulation.

The question of the relationship between religion and morality and its quality is among the most important philosophical issues with which contemporary philosophers such as Kant and Ayatollah Misbah are concerned. For Kant a man of principles sticks to ethical rules and obligations solely by relying on his own practical reasoning. For him, the reliability of moral issues has nothing to do with religious precepts. As for Ayatollah Misbah, he thinks that what is morally good or evil is determined by the relations between man’s voluntary acts and their final result; that is, if an act has a positive relationship with ultimate perfection, it is regarded good, otherwise it is deemed to be evil. This principle is not derived from a religious belief, but from the idea that it is necessary to refer to religion for achieving ultimate perfection and the kind of relationship between thoughts and ultimate perfection. In general, Ayatollah Misbah sees that religion and morality interact with one another.

Among the important questions asked about the relationship between ethics and movie are: Can we consider an immoral film to be lacking aesthetic value? Is it an aesthetically weak work? Since Plato's time, different views have been expressed in response to this question. Among these views, "moderate moralism", which represents a contemporary approach, claims to be more capable of offering an explanation about the relationship between ethics and art. Using content analysis and a documentary method, this paper investigates the perspective of moderate moralism. The research results show that the most important points of the difference between moderate moralism and extremism include the scope of the coverage of ethical evaluation, using the principles of "insofar" and "from all directions" and belief in the plurality of values. The moderate views of moralism also differ on such issues like the scope of the coverage of ethical evaluation, using adverbs like "always" or "sometimes", the method of reasoning and having a morally sensitive audience. An analysis of three moderate views shows that Gatt’s view is considered as the most plausible.

Philosophers consider that the quiddity of virtue and how it is obtained are among the important issues. First raised by Plato and Socrates, the question of the relationship among virtues is among the controversial subjects of any theory about virtues. Plato and Socrates defended the theory of unity of virtues. Aristotle was the first to attract the attention to the distinction between rational and moral virtues and criticize the unity of virtue. However, he did not answer the question as to what kind of relationship there is between rational and moral virtues. Farabi rejects the theory of unity of virtues and, like Aristotle, he divides virtues into rational and moral by using the power of soul and acquisition of virtues. In response to the question as to what kind of relationship there is among virtues, he has proposes the theory of precedence. This paper seeks to examine this issue, using a descriptive content analysis method.

Virtue-based ethics is a type of normative ethics that is rooted in ancient Greece. Abu Ali Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Miskawayh is one of the first scholars who discussed virtue-based ethics in an Islamic context. First, this study seeks to explore his views about virtue and happiness. Then, it investigates the impact of Greek philosophy on Ibn Miskawayh. The results show that although he has been influenced by Greek philosophers, Ibn Miskawayh, basing his view on the Islamic culture of high moral principles, has founded a kind of legitimism to which researchers in the field of ethics have been referring, so far.

One of the goals of the holy Prophet‘s mission is acquiring knowledge. The need to acquire knowledge is an absolute necessity that is limited to no specific time or place. From an Islamic perspective, there is a strong and close relationship between science and morality. Students’ need for morality is so urgent that lacking it destroys the moral foundations of society and diverts it from its religious path. Islamization of universities contributes to strengthening their morality. Moreover, in religious teachings, special moral codes have been set for Muslim students in public and professional fields, including honoring professors, maintaining decorum, etiquette of asking questions, diligent studying, having scientific discussions, and applying the knowledge. Cultural invasion, one-dimensional look at education, students’ impatience etc. are among the barriers to the development of morality among university students. Complying with student's moral code plays an important role in the solidarity and unity of society, social security, spread of divine religion, production of knowledge, scientific research and etc. The method used in this research is library-based.