Language and Philosophy

Virtue ethics is one of the three major approaches in normative ethics, along with deontology and consequentialism. It is an ethical theory that emphasizes the person's virtues or moral character (in contrast to deontology, which emphasizes duties or rules; and to consequentialism, which emphasizes the consequences of an action). Unlike the other approaches in normative ethics, virtue ethics does not provide the moral agent with specific principles or rules to guide her actions . Thus, instead of questions like "what ought I do?" (as in the case of deontology) or "will my action produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people?" (consequentialism), virtue ethics deals with broader ethical questions, such as: What kind of life should I live? What is a good life? How can I be consistent in my moral actions? Virtue ethics does not particularly deal with the rightness or wrongness of an action. Rather, with the help of practical wisdom (or phronesis ...

Transcendentalism is a literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement during the early 19th century in the New England region of the United States . It was a response to the Enlightenment ’s overemphasis of reason, the dehumanization caused by industrialization, and the growing spiritual crisis. Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), and Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) sought to explore the spiritual aspects of life, so that, in the words of Emerson, they may rediscover their “ original relation to the universe .” They emphasized the imagination and emotion over reason, intuition over science, the innate goodness of humanity, and nature. Influenced by Hume and biblical critics such as Schleiermacher and von Herder, transcendentalists were skeptic towards religion, and instead celebrated nature as the source of moral and spiritual enlightenment. Influences In addition to Hume’s skepticism and biblical criticism, transcende...

Media literacy education first began in the United States and United Kingdom. It was a direct result of war propaganda in the 1930s and the rise of advertising in the 1960s. During that time, media was used to manipulate people’s perspective. Thus, there was a need to educate people on how to detect the biases, falsehoods, and half-truths depicted in print, radio, and television (Boyd, 2014). Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media from a wide array of sources and understand the messages they bring (Hobbs, 1997). In its simplest form, media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. As such, it performs an important role in education, development, and innovation. Now that information comes through an interwoven system of media technologies, being media literate has become an essential skill in the 21st century. And schools, teachers, and students are constantly confronted with a challenge—the challenge of being media literate. Wh...

Deontology ( or deontological ethics) is one of the 3 major theories of normative ethics, along with virtue ethics and consequentialism. The word “deontology” comes from the Greek word δέον (deon), which means “duty.” Deontological ethics, therefore, is the theory that argues that the morality of a human action (i.e., its rightness or wrongness) depends on whether it fulfills a duty or not , rather than on virtue (as in the case of virtue ethics) or on its consequences (consequentialism). For deontological ethics, some actions are right or wrong in themselves , regardless of their consequences; and it is our duty to do these right actions and avoid the wrong ones . For example, we have the obligation to tell the truth, even if doing so might have unfavorable results. In other words, for deontological ethics, telling the truth is always right in itself , regardless of its consequences; while telling a lie is always wrong—and it is our duty to always tell the truth and avoid telling li...