نشریه مطالعات اخلاق کاربردی
سال یکم شماره 2 (تابستان 1390)

Morality and freedom are among the fundamental human apprehensions and the most basic human needs, which have gained an important place in our lives and society from a long time ago. These issues have gained multiplied importance in the contemporary public debate, and has attracted the attention of many contemporary thinkers. Regarding the importance of the concepts of morality and freedom lity and the need for them both by individuals and society, in the current article the writers will investigate the mentioned concepts. We will discuss the literary works and speeches on this subject from Emam Khomeini, as the greatest symbol of free thought and freedom and morality in the current world. On the basis of his writings and speeches, the findings on the interpretation of the concept of freedom and the relation between freedom and morality will be discussed. In his view, freedom is the condition for morality, which provides space for the nourishment of morality in society, and thus the foundational condition for a moral society is freedom. Besides this however there shouldn’t be a boundless freedom and it should be limited by morality and law.

Today the issue of cloning has drawn the attention of experts in different academic fields. The opponents of this phenomenon have offered several reasons against it. These reasons range from theological, legal to the social ones. Some experts, however, have considered the issue through ethical perspective and have suggested some criticism from this aspect. Based on this aspect five different reasons can be suggested against human cloning: 1- It contradicts innate human dignity. 2- It may lead to the creation of second class human beings. 3- It may lead to abusing humans as instruments. 4- It is against this principle that human body is safekeeping. 5- It will facilitate the abortion of unwanted embryos. The author would report and analyze these reasons and discuss the strengths of each reason.

Studying about the religious-ethical concepts in Quran involves different methods; like: applying theology or Islamic jurisprudence. Another approach in this regard is to consider these concepts through the language of Quran, i.e. applying linguistic analysis approach in concepts and terminology of the Quran. Based on this approach, the structure of the meanings extracted from the virtuous terms related to morality and manners which have been used in Quran is studied. It is believed that every single Quranic term includes semantic fields which are in relationship with each other and they all together build up the worldview and attitude of the Quran.In this approach the relation between words is not alphabetical and by Quran language system we mean various semantic fields to which they are linked and in different Quranic contexts reveal the concealed aspect of the scripture.

Discussing about the ethical realities from the ontological perspective is one of the most important issues in the philosophy of ethics. Coming to a proper and accurate conclusion regarding this issue has great impact on other subjects and scopes in philosophy of ethics. Talking about realism and non-realism are among the subjects discussed in ontology. Realism here means that there are a number of facts existing outside man's mind and perception, while non-realism remarks that such things never exist or at least there are doubts about them. Since we plan to compare one of the non-cognitive views in ethics with the school of realism in this essay, first a brief introduction of realism in ethics will be presented and then the view of non-cognition and the criticisms against it will be elaborated.

In addition to the intellect, Mula Sadra has used the religious texts in developing his own philosophical theory, Transcendent Wisdom. We can find a number of Quranic verses and other traditions reflected in his philosophical discussions. Mula Sadra, like every other Muslim believes that Islam determines the path toward happiness through divine revelation. Based on this principle, when discussing about happiness and misery, he reviews Quranic verses and Islamic traditions and concludes that human happiness is achieved by exalting his speculative intellect and is considered miserable if he moves to the opposite direction.

Mullā Sadrā and Motazili Qādī 'Abdoljabār are two Muslim scholars who have discussed the philosophy of ethics and paid special attention to the role of intellect in ethical issues. Some of the applications of intellect in ethics from Epistemological perspective mentioned by these two scholars can be included in the following four categories: 1- Intellect is applied in the perception of ethical principles. 2- It can be used to identify the ethical values. 3- It is also used to decide over expediencies and inexpediencies of the actions. 4- Intellect is a device to encourage the agent to acquire ethical virtues and prevent him from doing vices. This essay discusses the viewpoints of these two scholars regarding the four mentioned applications of intellect.

In this study, the significant role of epistemological moral skepticism in the overall context of the philosophical schools, and the types of arguments and criticism on the part of the study will be discussed. The importance and aim of this study which has been done through library research, is to check the exact types and attributes of the epistemological moral skepticism, and some of its arguments along with the criticisms posed against it. Epistemological moral skepticism, as ultra-moral view, investigates and critically discusses the moral knowledge. Academic moral skepticism and pyrhonie moral skepticism are two subcategories of Epistemological moral skepticism. Academic moral skepticism presenting arguments such as regress argument and other skeptical assumptions concludes that none of us has moral knowledge since none of our cognitions is supported by complete, positive and magnified perception. But pyrhonie skepticism suspends the sentences and claims that we do not know whether our beliefs are justified or not? The decision to admit or deny the existence of justified beliefs, may encounter some defects that we cannot avoid.