نشریه معرفت اخلاقی
پیاپی 12 (پاییز و زمستان 1391)

The theory of "Divine Command" is one of the famous theories in philosophy of ethics. This theory has been the subject of several criticisms for longtime. Robert Adams has defended this theory and provided a new explanation for it. The defenders of traditional theory of divine command have used a metaphysical method whereas Robert Adams uses a semantic method to defend it. Contrary to the traditional theory of divine command, Adams believes that moral concepts have concrete reality and so, they do not depend on divine command. As for moral obligations, they are dependent on divine commands. The evidence Adams gives is that the identity of moral obligations correspond with divine commands. The most important problem of his theory is that he believes in the concrete realities of moral concepts, but he does not think that moral concepts lead to moral obligations.

In Islam, moral responsibility which means accountability for moral duties does not make sense when it is disconnected from God. The most important issue about moral responsibility is that which deals with its theoretical foundations. These foundations include anthropological, ontological, epistemological, axiological, and sociological foundations.The present paper aims at investigating the sociological origin of man's moral responsibility. The foundations which are worth mentioning here are man's sociability, individualism, conventionality of society, interaction between individual and society, regularity of social affairs. The principle of man's moral responsibility can be demonstrated and then explained by referring to the foundations and to such things like moral duty, moral right and its correlation with duty and the correlation between duty and responsibility. First, the foundations related to responsibility have been extracted. Then an argument based on these foundations is advanced. The research is based on an analytical-rational method, a library survey and demonstrative argumentation.

The aim of the present paper to present a analytical review of the principles of moral education and the principles of mystical cultivation to find to what extent these two are in convergence or divergence with one another. These principles represent prescriptive, general and common rules which affect the process of moral and mystical change. The main question of the research is "to what extent are the general rules and principles governing the process of mystical education in convergence with those governing the process of moral education". A library method is used, content analysis of books on morals, particularly those on practical mysticism, is made and these books have been examined in order to extract these principles. The research findings show that the educational nature of the two types of educations necessities that they have such common principles like gradation, shariah-orientation, and inner and outer influential correlation, but some of their principles do not overlap each other. Two principles mass-orientation and cultivation of moral rationality are recognized as part of the principles exclusive to moral education, and such principles like individual-orientation, interpolative interaction, disintegration of individuality and necessity of master-orientation are recognized as part of those exclusive to mystical education.

Using a descriptive-library method, the present paper, which relies on Islamic sources, tries to recognize and classify the signs of patience about acts of disobedience in four dimensions: cognitive, emotional, motivational, and behavioral. A review of the general signs of patience is presented and those signs which can be realized in the time of performing disobedience are particularly recognized and explained. The research findings show that there are three signs in cognitive dimension, four in emotional dimension, one in motivational dimension and three in behavioral dimension which contribute to recognizing what the patience about acts of disobedience is. Finally, some issues are discussed to distinguish between praiseworthiness or non-praiseworthiness of patience, degrees of patience and the scope of signs that determines the characteristic of patience.

The present paper elaborates on the pillars of Farabi's utopia and the qualifications of its head, his deputy and other governors of it, and the conditions and characteristics which he attributes to them. Furthermore, it explains the role of morality by mentioning the duties of its people and the final end it seeks, represented in attaining happiness through cooperation, love, and justice. Farabi believes that communal life and having a wise virtuous leader who enjoys particular moral characteristics can contribute to attaining happiness and perfection. According to him, morality is among the most essential issue of the pillars of utopia.

Infallible Imam's traditions and sayings are a vast treasure of narrations about such important social topics including the etiquette of banquet. Giving and attending a banquet strengthens close social ties and promotes unity and brotherhood among Muslims. Therefore, Islam strongly recommends giving banquet and generous acts of hospitality. There are two sides in this social norm: the guest and the host and each of them has duties towards the other. Islamic traditions mention some of the duties of the host which are as follows: attending to and welcoming the guest, laying on lavish entertainment for the guest, joining in with guest in eating giving no assignment to the guest, accompanying the guest to the gate when he/she leaves. The guest has also some duties towards the host which are as follows: not bringing with him/her uninvited guests, taking the seat assigned by the host, making the visit as brief as possible, preserving one's eyes avoiding spying; and keeping the secrets of the family of the host

Honoring the guest is one of the constituents of Islamic morality, on which Islamic traditions, Quranic verses, and books of many thinkers emphasize. A deep look at the atmospheric structure of traditional Iranian houses will reveal the special attention given by these houses to honoring and respecting the guest. The present paper aims at reviewing and analyzing the manifestation of honoring the guest, as one of the Islamic moral aspects, in the atmospheric structure of traditional Iranian houses. The research method is descriptive-analytical. First, the idea of honoring the guest has been extracted from Islamic traditions, Quranic verses and books of a number of Muslim scholars and thinkers. Then the manifestation of honoring the guest in the atmospheric structure of traditional Iranian houses has been discussed and analyzed.