Saturday, April 21, 2007
Integrity is one of the most important and oft-cited of virtue terms. It is also perhaps the most puzzling. For example, while it is sometimes used virtually synonymously with ‘moral,’ we also at times distinguish acting morally from acting with integrity. Persons of integrity may in fact act immorally—though they would usually not know they are acting immorally. Thus one may acknowledge a person to have integrity even though that person may hold importantly mistaken moral views.
When used as a virtue term, ‘integrity’ refers to a quality of a person's character; however, there are other uses of the term. One may speak of the integrity of a wilderness region or an ecosystem, a computerized database, a defense system, a work of art, and so on. When it is applied to objects, integrity refers to the wholeness, intactness or purity of a thing—meanings that are sometimes carried over when it is applied to people. A wilderness region has integrity when it has not been corrupted by development or by the side-effects of development, when it remains intact as wilderness. A database maintains its integrity as long as it remains uncorrupted by error; a defense system as long as it is not breached. A musical work might be said to have integrity when its musical structure has a certain completeness that is not intruded upon by uncoordinated, unrelated musical ideas; that is, when it possesses a kind of musical wholeness, intactness and purity.
Integrity is also attributed to various parts or aspects of a person's life. We speak of attributes such as professional, intellectual and artistic integrity. However, the most philosophically important sense of the term ‘integrity’ relates to general character. Philosophers have been particularly concerned to understand what it is for a person to exhibit integrity throughout life. Acting with integrity on some particularly important occasion will, philosophically speaking, always be explained in terms of broader features of a person's character and life. What is it to be a person of integrity? Ordinary discourse about integrity involves two fundamental intuitions: first, that integrity is primarily a formal relation one has to oneself, or between parts or aspects of one's self; and second, that integrity is connected in an important way to acting morally, in other words, there are some substantive or normative constraints on what it is to act with integrity. How these two intuitions can be incorporated into a consistent theory of integrity is not obvious, and most accounts of integrity tend to focus on one of these intuitions to the detriment of the other. A number of accounts have been advanced, the most important of them being: (i) integrity as the integration of self; (ii) integrity as maintenance of identity; (iii) integrity as standing for something; (iv) integrity as moral purpose; and (v) integrity as a virtue. These accounts are reviewed below. We then examine several issues that have been of central concern to philosophers exploring the concept of integrity: the relations between types of integrity, integrity and moral theory, and integrity and social and political conditions.
In school, we are reminded of Integrity, as in, not to cheat in examinations or tests, and to hand in our work on time. And, a person who has integrity will not make up lies, or excuses, to cover up his/her wrongdoings.
express YOURself~ {8:52 PM}
Truth
Truth, what is truth?
And is it aloof? And if it is, where is the proof?
Is it something that comes in a revelation,
Does it follow some grand divine presentation?
And does truth stay the same through time,
Is there even truth within this rhyme?
Is it relative, only within the mind,
Or is it in objectivity that truth we find?
Is it the “
veritas” that Pilate did mutter,
Or the unknowable forms Socrates did utter?
Truth, what is truth?
Can it be found?
Will truth in our ears ever make a sound?
Josh Weiss
The Truth
Say what you want
Mean what you say
Remember the darkest
Lights of that day
Be who you are
Do as you please
The truth is going to
Bring you to your knees
The truth is that
That we all need
The truth is the end
Of a mystery
The truth is out there
You will see
The truth is out there
For you and me
The truth is out there
The search is not in vain
The truth is out there
Out there in the rain
Say what you want
But you better believe
The truth is a goal
We all must achieve
Anthony Smith
Credits:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/truth/We think that truth, is not telling lies. it won't hurt to let other know the truth. what's the point if you lie, so just tell the truth, because, one day, the person you lied to will find out that you lied. (:
Love,
Yiying and Xueting
express YOURself~ {8:11 PM}
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Justice is the ideal, morally correct state of things and persons. For many, justice is overwhelmingly important: "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought."For many, it has not been achieved: "We do not live in a just world."
This problem of uncertainty about fundamentals has inspired
philosophical reflection about justice, as about other topics. What exactly justice is, and what it demands of individuals and societies, are among the oldest and most contested of philosophical questions. For example, the proper distribution of wealth in society — should it be equal? meritocratic? according to status? — has been fiercely debated for at least the last 2,500 years.
Philosophers,
political theorists,
theologians,
legal scholars and others have attempted to clarify the source, nature and demands of justice, with widely various results.
Some may picture justice as a
virtue — a property of people, and only derivatively of their actions and the institutions they create — or as a property of actions or institutions, and only derivatively of the people who bring them about. The source of justice may be thought to be harmony, divine command, natural law, or human creation, or it may be thought to be subordinate to a more central ethical standard. The demands of justice are pressing in two areas, distribution and retribution.
Distributive justice may require equality, giving people what they deserve, maximising benefit to the worst off, protecting whatever comes about in the right way, or maximising total welfare.
Retributive justice may require backward-looking retaliation, or forward-looking use of punishment for the sake of its consequences. Ideals of justice must be put into practice by institutions, which raise their own questions of legitimacy, procedure, codification and interpretation.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique. Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being "drawn toward." Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one's friends and enemies.
To us, Justice is about fairness, giving people what they deserve. We should uphold justice, make sure no one gets misunderstood forever. Justice is also like a scale balance, if one scale is higher than the other, there is no justice. Everyone must be treated fairly, equally.
Credits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JusticeSigned,
Xueting&Yiying
express YOURself~ {4:42 AM}
