Is a sense of humour a virtue? In an informal sense of the term ‘virtue’, of course it is. A sense of humour is a trait nobody wants to be thought of as lacking, and one that we value in partners, friends and colleagues alike. But the claim that a sense of humour is a moral virtue seems far more controversial. Yet in a fascinating article, just this claim has been advanced by Robert C. Roberts,...

This article offers a new perspective on the relationship between cocaine and medical practitioners in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Cocaine is often understood as one of a number of potentially addictive substances to which Victorian physicians and surgeons were regularly exposed, and tempted to indulge in. However, while cocaine has frequently been associated with disc...

... Anthony Kronman begins his deeply pessimistic meditation on the state of the American legal profession with a confession. ... On that occasion, Kronman argued that the legal profession's moral problems stemmed from its commitment to advocacy as a professional ideal. ... This vision of the lawyer's role, which Kronman calls "the ideal of the lawyer-statesman" (p. 3), links professional excel...

From the patristic period to the beginning of the seventeenth century curiosity was regarded as an intellectual vice. Curious individuals were considered to be proud and "puffed up," and the objects of their investigations were deemed illicit, dispute engendering, unknowable, or useless. Seventeenth-century projects for the advancement of learning had to distance themselves from curiosity and i...

the relation between ethics and human good and evil attributes and his nature is among the age-old discourses in the field of practical philosophy (wisdom). since long ago, it has been of concern to the learned and the philosophers as to whether all ethics or a part of it in all human beings or in some of them is optional and acquired or non-optional, unacquirable, and unchangeable. this writin...

Today, discussions on health have considered the spiritual – mental health on a par with physical health. A close relationship can be seen between two points, mental health and ethical, training issues, so that individuals who do not have spiritual virtues and religious training are not healthy individuals. Due to the considerable importance of moral and mental health about children, this...

This conceptual paper addresses the role individual plays in sustainability against backdrop of ethical dimensions sustainability. We discuss relevance moral personhood as a basis for and develop model The outlines discusses morality from virtue ethics perspective. employ Buddhist approach conceptualizing sustainable person that is characterized by virtues, interdependent personhood, an inheren...

Is there such a thing as free will in Buddhism? Do moral and mental forms of cultivation at the heart of Buddhist practice imply some notion of agency and responsibility? And if they do, how are we to think of those individuals who embark on the path to liberation or enlightenment, considering that all Buddhists give universal scope to the noself doctrine? Of course, Buddhism is not alone among...