Charles R. Lightner

I continue to work through “The Golden Rule” by Jeffrey Wattles (Oxford University Press, 1996), which is one of the few works acknowledged as a truly comprehensive scholarly treatment of the subject. There’s no question that it is thoroughly researched and representative of a deeply thought engagement with the topic. I want to stop here to make a couple of interim points that I think...

Having spent some time now studying the work of the secular philosophers, I'm now going to spend some time on the work of those scholars who have made specific study of the golden rule; its place in world religious and ethical study; its strengths and weaknesses as a universal ethic; and, proposals to cure the weaknesses observed. It could be argued that I should have started at this ...

In an earlier post on the thinking of Immanuel Kant, we found that Kant believed that the measure of the morality of an action was to be found only in the intention of the person acting. He argued that we can never know with certainty what outcome an action will produce and so we cannot be held responsible for outcomes, only intentions. Utilitarians, as we’ve seen, though, are “conseq...

In an earlier post I briefly reviewed the ideas of Immanuel Kant, particularly his notion of the Categorical Imperative. Kant’s “Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals”, in which the Categorical Imperative was first proposed, was published in 1785. Roger Scruton, writing about Kant, has said: “The Critique of Pure Reason (published in 1781, 4 years before The Metaphysics of Morals...

In our first post on the subject of intention in Islam we discussed the “Hadith of Intention”: which is stated in its short form as: “Verily actions are by intention and for every person is what he intended.” The word translated as “intention”, is niyyah. It’s important that we understand clearly what that term means in the context used in the hadith. Here are three comments on ...

The issue of intention is central to the study of ethics. Differences among religions, philosophies and ethical systems on the issue of intention are critical to understanding their similarities and their distinctions. I did not expect to address the issue of intention in Islam at this point, feeling much better equipped to address both Jewish and Christian approaches, but I encounter...

The subject of this comment is out of order but it’s one that has been on my mind this week so I’ll interrupt the planned flow of posts on the Ethic of Three Metals to make a point. Kant suggests (in loose paraphrase) that we judge all our actions against his proposed standard: is this action expressive of a principle that I would have universally applied in all times, places and situ...