Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action' and 'works'

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4 ideas

16. Persons / F. Free Will / 1. Nature of Free Will
3447 All theory is against free will, and all experience is in favour of it [Johnson,S]
     Full Idea: All theory is against free will, and all experience is in favour of it.
     From: Samuel Johnson (works [1770]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas)
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism
15677 Moral right is linked to validity and truth, so morality is a matter of knowledge, not an expression of values [Habermas, by Finlayson]
     Full Idea: According to discourse ethics moral rightness is internally linked to validity and is analogous to truth: ..thus Habermas takes himself to have shown that morality is a matter of knowledge, rather than the expression of contingently held values.
     From: report of Jürgen Habermas (Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action [1990]) by James Gordon Finlayson - Habermas Ch.7:102
     A reaction: I can immediately hear Nietzsche asking why you place such a high value on knowledge. Personally I don't assume that values must be 'contingent'. The Aristotelian tradition sees necessary values in facts about human nature.
23. Ethics / B. Contract Ethics / 9. Contractualism
15671 Move from individual willing of a general law, to willing norms agreed with other people [Habermas]
     Full Idea: The emphasis shifts from what each can will without contradiction to be a general law, to what all can will in agreement to be a universal norm.
     From: Jürgen Habermas (Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action [1990], p.67), quoted by James Gordon Finlayson - Habermas Ch.5:69
     A reaction: This strikes me as being very close to Scanlon's contractualism. As expressed here, it sounds more vulnerable than Kant's full universality to the problem of Nazis agreeing odious universal norms. Habermas calls it 'discourse ethics'.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues
7903 The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
     Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
     From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
     A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').