The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard argued in his 1844 work ‘The Concept of Anxiety’ that anxiety is a vital aspect of the human condition, a consequence of freedom and choice. In this article I argue that this, along with other key concepts of anxiety identified by Kierkegaard including the avoidance of past negative experiences, and education in choice outcomes, are supported by modern theories of anxiety using evidence from social and experimental psychology as well as psychiatry. A proposed future body of (...) work involving anxiety and free will stemming from Kierkegaard’s philosophy is also discussed. (shrink)

This paper discusses the two primary groups of jurisprudential theories, Utilitarianism and Deontology, and attempts to show that there is a phenomenon that occurs when the results are opposite to what was expected. When this happens, the Utilitarian position prior to the results would become a Deontological position after the results, and vice versa i.e. the Deontological position prior to the results would become a Utilitarian position after the results, provided that the results are opposite to what was expected. This (...) is The Direct Inverse Effect. This has been approached not from an entirely critical position, but from a position that attempts to encourage the reader to move away from confining oneself to either of these groupings. Since positions can only be held retrospectively, one should move away from holding these positions when deciding on how to act. Both of these theories have merit, and both can and should be used where applicable. This has been demonstrated by the use of opinions of philosophers and hypothetical scenarios. This shows that aligning to any jurisprudential grouping prior to the results is of no significance, and instead each decision should be made on a case by case basis utilising both Utilitarianism and Deontology. (shrink)

In this text, I try to examine in sufficient detail what is the exact function that Aristotle ascribes to deliberation in the Nicomachean Ethics (NE). More specifically, I intend to evaluate, in the light of the arguments built along selected passages from books II, III and VI of that work, how and to what extent deliberation plays an important role in the achievement of virtuous actions and in the consolidation of the virtuous character. Proceeding from an argumentative analysis that intends (...) to elucidate how some of the central concepts of Aristotelian ethical reflection are articulated, I shall defend, in the last part of my exposition, the interpretation according to which the function of deliberation is to produce long-term purposes that determine courses of action and that, if implemented accordingly to the orthos logos by the moral agent endowed with phronēsis, achieve the end of virtue of character. (shrink)