Conscience: An Interdisciplinary View
Conscience: An Interdisciplinary View

Author: G. Zecha

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9400938217

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Value change and uncertainty about the validity of traditional moral convictions are frequently observed when scientific re search confronts us with new moral problems or challenges the moral responsibility of the scientist. Which ethics is to be relied on? Which principles are the most reasonable, the most humane ones? For want of an appropriate answer, moral authorities of ten point to conscience, the individual conscience, which seems to be man's unique, directly accessible and final source of moral contention. But what is meant by 'conscience'? There is hardly a notion as widely used and at the same time as controversial as that of conscience. In the history of ethics we can distinguish several trends in the interpretation of the concept and function of conscience. The Greeks used the word O"uvEt81lm~ to denote a kind of 'accompa nying knowledge' that mostly referred to negatively experienced behavior. In Latin, the expression conscientia meant a knowing together pointing beyond the individual consciousness to the common knowledge of other people. In the Bible, especially in the New Testament, O"uvEt81l0"t~ is used for the guiding con sciousness of the morality of one's own action.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Consciousness and the Self
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Consciousness and the Self

Author: Sangeetha Menon

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-12-12

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 8132215877

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This book brings together ancient spiritual wisdom and modern science and philosophy to address age-old questions regarding our existence, free will and the nature of conscious awareness. Stuart Hameroff MD Professor, Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Director, Center for Consciousness Studies The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona This book presents a rich, broad-ranging overview of contemporary research and scholarship into consciousness and the self.... It is ... to their credit that the editors have assembled a highly stimulating set of scholars whose expertise cover all the relevant areas. I strongly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in understanding the directions in which contemporary thinking about the nature of consciousness is headed. B. Les Lancaster Emeritus Professor of Transpersonal Psychology Liverpool John Moores University, UK This volume is a collection of 23 essays that contribute to the emerging discipline of consciousness studies with particular focus on the concept of the self. The essays together argue that to understand consciousness is to understand the self that beholds consciousness. Two broad issues are addressed in the volume: the place of the self in the lives of humans and nonhuman primates; and the interrelations between the self and consciousness, which contribute to the understanding of cognitive functions, awareness, free will, nature of reality, and the complex experiential and behavioural attributes of consciousness. The book presents cutting-edge and original work from well-known authors and scholars of philosophy, psychiatry, behavioural sciences and physics. This is a pioneering attempt to present to the reader multiple ways of conceptualizing and thus understanding the relation between consciousness and self in a nuanced manner.

The Illusion of Conscious Will
The Illusion of Conscious Will

Author: Daniel M. Wegner

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2003-08-11

Total Pages: 743

ISBN-13: 0262290553

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A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.

Content and Consciousness Revisited
Content and Consciousness Revisited

Author: Carlos Muñoz-Suárez

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-07-10

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 331917374X

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What are the grounds for the distinction between the mental and the physical? What is it the relation between ascribing mental states to an organism and understanding its behavior? Are animals and complex systems vehicles of inner evolutionary environments? Is there a difference between personal and sub-personal level processes in the brain? Answers to these and other questions were developed in Daniel Dennett’s first book, Content and Consciousness (1969), where he sketched a unified theoretical framework for views that are now considered foundational in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. Content and Consciousness Revisited is devoted to reconsider the ideas and ideals introduced in Dennett’s seminal book, by covering its fundamental concepts, hypotheses and approaches and taking into account the findings and progress which have taken place during more than four decades. This book includes original and critical contributions about the relations between science and philosophy, the personal/sub-personal level distinction, intelligence, learning, intentionality, rationality, propositional attitudes, among other issues of scientific and philosophical interest. Each chapter embraces an updated approach to several disciplines, like cognitive science, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind and cognitive psychiatry.

The Structure and Development of Self-Consciousness
The Structure and Development of Self-Consciousness

Author: Dan Zahavi

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2004-09-23

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9027295131

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Self-consciousness is a topic of considerable importance to a variety of empirical and theoretical disciplines such as developmental and social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, and philosophy. This volume presents essays on self-consciousness by prominent psychologists, cognitive neurologists, and philosophers. Some of the topics included are the infants’ sense of self and others, theory of mind, phenomenology of embodiment, neural mechanisms of action attribution, and hermeneutics of the self. A number of these essays argue in turn that empirical findings in developmental psychology, phenomenological analyses of embodiment, or studies of pathological self-experiences point to the existence of a type of self-consciousness that does not require any explicit I —thought or self-observation, but is more adequately described as a pre-reflective, embodied form of self-familiarity. The different contributions in the volume amply demonstrate that self-consciousness is a complex multifaceted phenomenon that calls for an integration of different complementary interdisciplinary perspectives. (Series B)

Consciousness in Interaction
Consciousness in Interaction

Author: Fabio Paglieri

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9027213526

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Consciousness in Interaction is an interdisciplinary collection with contributions from philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and historians of philosophy. It revolves around the idea that consciousness emerges from, and impacts on, our skilled interactions with the natural and social context. Section one discusses how phenomenal consciousness and subjective selfhood are grounded on natural and social interactions, and what role brain activity plays in these phenomena. Section two analyzes how interactions with external objects and other human beings shape our understanding of ourselves, and how consciousness changes social interaction, self-control and emotions. Section three provides historical depth to the volume, by tracing the roots of the contemporary notion of consciousness in early modern philosophy. The book offers interdisciplinary insight on a variety of key topics in consciousness research: as such, it is of particular interest for researchers from philosophy of mind, phenomenology, cognitive and social sciences, and humanities.

Lawrence Kohlberg – An Introduction
Lawrence Kohlberg – An Introduction

Author: Detlef Garz

Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich

Published: 2009-07-22

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 3866497695

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Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) was one of the key figures in generating theories of human development. Following James Mark Baldwin and Jean Piaget, he designed a research program in order to understand moral development – which he viewed as justice development -, during the life-span. With the help of dilemma-interviews and a comprehensive scoring manual, Kohlberg looked into the stage of development and the moral point of view of children, adolescents and adults both in the United States and abroad. Related herewith, he discussed central topics, such as the relationship be¬tween judgment and action, the transnational universality of moral development, and gender-related morality. His innovative interdisciplinary work embraced the fields of developmental psychology, philosophy, and education among others. His research was inspiring in many aspects and will be inspiring for the years to come.

Christian Ethics, Volume 1
Christian Ethics, Volume 1

Author: Karl-Heinz Peschke

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-08-21

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1620322153

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This recent edition of Christian Ethics Volume I is a thoroughly revised and updated version of fundamental moral theology. As in the previous editions, the author makes himself an interpreter of the demands of Vatican Council II and its request that moral theology be rooted more fully in Holy Scripture. At the same time account is taken of the new developments in the field of ethics. New issues of actual concern are taken up, such as the deontological and teleological conditions of moral norms, the confrontation between conscience and civil or ecclesiastical law, the communal roots of Christian identity, the requirement of liberty and the ethical compromise. The book addresses itself to all who are interested in the moral teaching of the Christian faith and endeavors to be a helpful instrument to this end.

Feminist Ethics and Natural Law
Feminist Ethics and Natural Law

Author: Cristina L. H. Traina

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 1999-04-28

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9781589018464

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Heated debates over such issues as abortion, contraception, ordination, and Church hierarchy suggest that feminist and natural law ethics are diametrically opposed. Cristina L.H. Traina now reexamines both Roman Catholic natural law tradition and Anglo-American feminist ethics and reconciles the two positions by showing how some of their aims and assumptions complement one another. After carefully scrutinizing Aquinas’s moral theology, she analyzes trends in both contemporary feminist ethics, theological as well as secular, and twentieth-century Roman Catholic moral theology. Although feminist ethics reject many of the methods and conclusions of the scholastic and revisionist natural law schools, Traina shows that a truly Thomistic natural law ethic nonetheless provides a much-needed holistic foundation for contemporary feminist ethics. On the other hand, she offers new perspectives on the writings of Josef Fuchs, Richard McCormick, and Gustavo Gutierrez, arguing that their failure to catch the full spirit of Thomas’s moral vision is due to inadequate attention to feminist critical methods. This highly original book proposes an innovative union of two supposedly antagonistic schools of thought, a new feminist natural law that would yield more comprehensive moral analysis than either existing tradition alone. This is a provocative book not only for students of moral theology but also for feminists who may object to the very notion of natural law ethics, suggesting how each might find insight in an unlikely place.

A Morally Complex World
A Morally Complex World

Author: James T. Bretzke

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2022-04-30

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0814684416

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How can people celebrate the gospel of life in their daily lives? What about cloning? Is euthanasia morally acceptable in certain cases, such as terminal illness? In case of health reasons, mental illness, pregnancy due to rape, etc., is abortion morally acceptable? Are you in favor of the use of contraceptives, both natural and artificial? A Morally Complex World will not answer such complex questions in detail, but it does provide a framework for trying to grapple better with the first question of how we should lead our moral lives in general, as well as some of the concrete ethical issues the other three questions raise. A Morally Complex World is an accessible introduction to moral theology covering the methodology of moral theology; basic concepts such as conscience and moral agency; natural law, moral norms; how the Bible can be used in Christian ethics; how to dialogue on contested ethical issues; how to consider sin and moral failure; and finally, how to mediate moral principles and moral teaching in a pastorally sensitive manner in concrete life situations. Chapters are Mapping a Moral Methodology, The Natural Law and Moral Norms: Moving Along the Rational Claim Axis, Scripture and Ethics: Moving Along the Sacred Claim Axis, The Sanctuary of Conscience: Where the Axes Intersect, Modes of Moral Discourse: Navigating Towards a Common Ground, Navigating in the Morally Complex World: Casuistry with a Human Face, and Sin and Failure in a Morally Complex World. James T. Bretzke, SJ, STD, is associate professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco, and an adjunct professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology-at-Berkeley. He has written three books, including Consecrated Phrases: A Latin Theological Dictionary, published by Liturgical Press, which won an award from the Catholic Press Association. He has also authored over fifty articles and scholarly reviews in the areas of Roman Catholic moral theology and cross-cultural ethics. "