نشریه مطالعات اخلاق کاربردی
سال یکم شماره 3 (پاییز 1390)

One of the newly developed sciences in the world and especially in our country is semantic which is classified as one of the branches of linguistics. Islamic texts including Quran, Hadith and mystical material all contain many ethical points and codes. Unfortunately in recent years despite precious researches performed in many fields of Islamic sciences, no adequate research has been devoted to the ethical-mystical semantic of Islamic texts. In this essay I am trying to sketch a clear image of this subject to all readers interesting in ethical mystical issues so that they realize how important this subject is.Ethical semantic is a science which tries to clarify the ethical codes and concepts which have long been in circulation within Arabic and Farsi texts. Islamic mystics relying on Quran and Hadith have gained quite valuable achievements in this regard, though they are not based on scientific methodology. The task of ethical-mystical semantic is to design a field of terminology semantic which forms a system, layers or links that indicate a thorough concept for developing a systematic ethical approach. It is obvious that the example given in the essay have been extracted from the texts of Quran, Hadith and mystical Arabic and Farsi sources. I hope that this new method would open new gates for producing ethical concepts especially of dynamic ethical kind.

Ethical propositions found in some texts which are usually expressed in forms of one or several statements structurally consist of a subject and a predicate. The predicates of such statements usually include ethical concepts such as "good" and "bad", "should" and "should not", "right" and "wrong" and "duty". Concerning the subjects of such propositions with regard to the disagreements among the experts in ethics of virtue and ethics of duty, different views have been expressed. The advocates of ethics of virtue according to their belief in the significance of human merits and vices consider man's enduring- subjective qualities as the subjects of ethics and ethical propositions. While the proponents of ethics of duty on the basis of principles of manners, regard human voluntary actions as the subject of ethics. In this essay, Quranic views concerning the subjects of ethical propositions will be reviewed and by referring to some instances from Quranic verses, it will be concluded that the ethical injunctions of the Quran cover a vaster field than just human’s voluntary actions and qualities and as a result the subject of ethical propositions would be "man and his dimensions of existence.” In other words, in the Quran, the seven ethical concepts i.e. "good" and "bad", "should" and "should not", "right" and "wrong" and "duty" have been attributed to man's five dimensions including "epistemological", "emotional", "voluntary", "active" and "human character".

Islamic society is a value-based society in which individual felicity is closely linked to the salvation of the whole nation and where there is a strong and lasting tie between social tasks and one's religious belief. In such a society the real cause of implementing this link is having proper social morality and ideal ethical society based on strong and appropriate principles. It is because there is a profound relationship between morality and one's innate dispositions, purification of soul and individual and social conducts, all of which would lead to everyone's peaceful co-existence and lasting interaction with others in the society. In his commentary and philosophical views, Allame Tabatabie, the great Muslim thinker, has paid attention to this issue and considered it as a key element in building an ideal ethical society. He believes if the proper and lasting ethical principles which frame one's proper temperament and his right treatments towards the others, are not regarded as essential bases for his faith, in such a society people will be deviated from their right and natural course and will reject the belief in God and monotheism and this will lead to the spread of corruption in the society.In this essay, the author would try to point out the most significant principles of morality in an ideal ethical society as an element in stabilizing it in Allame Tabatabie's viewpoints.

The present study concerns the methods of justifying ethical propositions. Based on the traditional definition, cognition is a true and justifiable belief. The insertion of justifiableness in the definition of cognition demonstrates that majority of the experts in epistemology consider it as an essential element in the fulfillment of cognition. There are many different views, however about the identity and meaning of justification and this study is trying to review and assess some of these views. In this essay, first the epistemology and skepticism and their various kinds will be briefly explained and then different approaches of the scholars in epistemology towards the meaning of justification will be discussed. Also, considering the confrontation of ethical epistemology and ethical skepticism, the views regarding justification in ethics will be mentioned. Finally, the views expressed by the supporters of ethical skepticism concerning justification will be discussed too.

Late Allame Tabatabie has expressed four different ethical theories in his three books. In his Nihayat al-Hikma he supports ethics of virtue, in his other book Usul Falsafe, he proves a kind of utilitarianism and in Al-Mizan he upholds heavenly prudentialism or mystical theism. This article would review the criticisms and ideas expressed in this regard and Allame's opinions towards the importance of each will be discussed too. It seems that Allame considers different kinds of ethics for different people with different levels of knowledge and various conditions. In this way maybe a kind of ethics which is appropriate for someone is inappropriate for someone else.

The major institute in our country and other Islamic countries which is responsible for developing and blossoming physical and spiritual aspects of the children and adolescents is called "the ministry of training and education". The basic task assigned for this ministry is to teach the young children the essential scientific information and to train them both physically and spiritually in order to develop and practice the virtues and appropriate norms based on Islamic values in the society. In this essay the author tries to challenge the "training" aspect of the ministry and reveal the negative consequences of this task given to this institute. The author believes as names and titles have great impacts on leading social movements, giving the title of "training" to this ministry may have dangerous outcomes for the society.

Affection and friendship in philosophy of ethics is regarded as one of the most important virtues. Aristotle believes that friendship is a supplement to the virtues while Muslim and Christian philosophers such as Ibn Moskevayh and Thomas Aquinas consider it the most important of the virtues. Aquinas counts it as the best religious virtue and Ibn Moskevayh believes that with affection we dont need justice. Here, in this essay we particularly investigate and analyze this notion as presented in the thoughts and works of Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest Christian thinkers. It seems like, although he was holding religious thoughts, he was also influenced by Aristotle's ethical views and thus tried to integrate these two sources to supplement his ethical ideas. One of his innovations in this regard is his special attention to the function of affection and amiability as an ethical virtue in his own ethical system which can be justified only through his religious beliefs. Aquinas differentiates between divine goodness and humanly acquired virtues, a discrimination which was not supported by Aristotle. He pays great attention to the religious virtues such as, faith, hope, affection, wisdom and determination and concludes that affection is the greatest of these virtues whose ultimate destination is God and is awarded only through divine grace and as a result man's efforts and competence would not contribute to its fulfillment. In the present essay, having depicted the virtue through the lens of Aquinas system of ethics and pointed to its divisions, we will discuss the nature, definition and function of religious virtues in the philosophy of ethics. In the end, the superiority of affection as one the virtues, over other virtues according to Aquinas's view will be discussed and his special view in which he emphasized that all virtues are gained only through loving God will be explained.