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Two ethical currents have been dominant during the past three centuries in moral philosophy, namely utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. As a number of moralists have observed, the contemporary moral disorder provides clear evidence of the failure of these two theories. In fact, they have left our societies in a moral crisis with social and political consequences. We may not lay the entire blame for this crisis at the feet of these theories. In any case, they are unable to resolve it. African society is not preserved from this crisis. The problem of Utilitarian and Kantian ethics lies in the fact that they are impersonal and alienating, because they commit themselves to utility and duty for their own sakes. Thus they cannot provide us with any ground on which we can base the reconstruction of the African society which is undergoing a social and political crisis. The alternative I propose is Aristotelian virtue ethics viewed from a communitarian perspective. While Utilitarianism and Kantianism emphasize doing (act-based ethics), virtue ethics is concerned with being (agent-based ethics), and flourishes mostly in the context of the community. As a result I argue that virtue ethics could be a solution to the moral and sociopolitical crisis which African society is experiencing today, in that it could help us to relocate the individual in the community as a being-with-self and a being-with-others, that is, an individual endowed with the overall virtue of Ubuntu (humanity). It is this kind of individual we expect in African humanism thought to be socio-ethical. However, Aristotelian virtue ethics is far from being an automatic panacea. In fact, it faces three major problems which social and political philosophy is wrestling with at present, namely: the complexity of our contemporary society, the current problems of nationalism and democracy, and the problem of global ethics and cosmopolitan citizenship. Nevertheless, there is reason to hope. This hope lies in our being human which entails being moral. I believe that morality implies that the human person cannot be reduced to a seIf-interested calculator whose social ties originate in a contract as Kantian thinkers might - make us believe. Instead, a virtuous life is suggested as a relevant tool that would help us to perceive and appreciate the circumstances in which one lives and act accordingly. The solution to African society's problem is at this price. / Theses (M.A.)-(University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Language practitioners the world over have been struggling for professional recognition for many years. In many instances the emphasis has been on establishing measures like legislation to regulate the industry. However, many institutions have also realised that external regulation such as legislation is not enough and that language practitioners in general and text editors specifically needed an internal regulating mechanism. This mechanism was not just something internal to the industry but was more personal, and therefore internal to practitioners themselves. In this regard a properly designed code of ethics was regarded as an indispensable means of setting out to text editors what may be regarded as proper conduct in carrying out their work. No code of ethics for text editors in South Africa exists and text editors who are members of the South African Translators' Association (SATI) subscribe to the code for translators. This is an undesirable state of affairs as it is important for practitioners to feel that a code is specific to them and "belongs" to them in order for them to subscribe to it. More than that, because a code is part of an internal value system it is important for practitioners to internalise such a code for it to be effective. This study, aimed at the design of a code of ethics for text editors, therefore strove to achieve two aims. The first aim was to design a code of ethics for text editors with reference to existing codes in other related fields, gleaning common elements from them. The second aim was to involve a selection of practising text editors in the refinement of the draft code in order to finalise it, thus ensuring that the code would be acceptable to the people most affected by it. The result of the project was the establishment of a code that was acceptable to all the practitioners involved up to the conclusion of the project. This code will be of value in filling the vacuum in this branch of language practice where no ethical guidelines existed before. / Language practitioners the world over have been struggling for professional recognition for many years. In many instances the emphasis has been on establishing measures like legislation to regulate the industry. However, many institutions have also realised that external regulation such as legislation is not enough and that language practitioners in general and text editors specifically needed an internal regulating mechanism. This mechanism was not just something internal to the industry but was more personal, and therefore internal to practitioners themselves. In this regard a properly designed code of ethics was regarded as an indispensable means of setting out to text editors what may be regarded as proper conduct in carrying out their work. No code of ethics for text editors in South Africa exists and text editors who are members of the South African Translators' Association (SATI) subscribe to the code for translators. This is an undesirable state of affairs as it is important for practitioners to feel that a code is specific to them and "belongs" to them in order for them to subscribe to it. More than that, because a code is part of an internal value system it is important for practitioners to internalise such a code for it to be effective. This study, aimed at the design of a code of ethics for text editors, therefore strove to achieve two aims. The first aim was to design a code of ethics for text editors with reference to existing codes in other related fields, gleaning common elements from them. The second aim was to involve a selection of practising text editors in the refinement of the draft code in order to finalise it, thus ensuring that the code would be acceptable to the people most affected by it. The result of the project was the establishment of a code that was acceptable to all the practitioners involved up to the conclusion of the project. This code will be of value in filling the vacuum in this branch of language practice where no ethical guidelines existed before. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2001.

Language practitioners the world over have been struggling for professional recognition for many years. In many instances the emphasis has been on establishing measures like legislation to regulate the industry. However, many institutions have also realised that external regulation such as legislation is not enough and that language practitioners in general and text editors specifically needed an internal regulating mechanism. This mechanism was not just something internal to the industry but was more personal, and therefore internal to practitioners themselves. In this regard a properly designed code of ethics was regarded as an indispensable means of setting out to text editors what may be regarded as proper conduct in carrying out their work. No code of ethics for text editors in South Africa exists and text editors who are members of the South African Translators' Association (SATI) subscribe to the code for translators. This is an undesirable state of affairs as it is important for practitioners to feel that a code is specific to them and "belongs" to them in order for them to subscribe to it. More than that, because a code is part of an internal value system it is important for practitioners to internalise such a code for it to be effective. This study, aimed at the design of a code of ethics for text editors, therefore strove to achieve two aims. The first aim was to design a code of ethics for text editors with reference to existing codes in other related fields, gleaning common elements from them. The second aim was to involve a selection of practising text editors in the refinement of the draft code in order to finalise it, thus ensuring that the code would be acceptable to the people most affected by it. The result of the project was the establishment of a code that was acceptable to all the practitioners involved up to the conclusion of the project. This code will be of value in filling the vacuum in this branch of language practice where no ethical guidelines existed before. / Language practitioners the world over have been struggling for professional recognition for many years. In many instances the emphasis has been on establishing measures like legislation to regulate the industry. However, many institutions have also realised that external regulation such as legislation is not enough and that language practitioners in general and text editors specifically needed an internal regulating mechanism. This mechanism was not just something internal to the industry but was more personal, and therefore internal to practitioners themselves. In this regard a properly designed code of ethics was regarded as an indispensable means of setting out to text editors what may be regarded as proper conduct in carrying out their work. No code of ethics for text editors in South Africa exists and text editors who are members of the South African Translators' Association (SATI) subscribe to the code for translators. This is an undesirable state of affairs as it is important for practitioners to feel that a code is specific to them and "belongs" to them in order for them to subscribe to it. More than that, because a code is part of an internal value system it is important for practitioners to internalise such a code for it to be effective. This study, aimed at the design of a code of ethics for text editors, therefore strove to achieve two aims. The first aim was to design a code of ethics for text editors with reference to existing codes in other related fields, gleaning common elements from them. The second aim was to involve a selection of practising text editors in the refinement of the draft code in order to finalise it, thus ensuring that the code would be acceptable to the people most affected by it. The result of the project was the establishment of a code that was acceptable to all the practitioners involved up to the conclusion of the project. This code will be of value in filling the vacuum in this branch of language practice where no ethical guidelines existed before. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2001.

The great power of the medical profession over the lives of men entails a wealth of moral problems in medical practice and lends particular importance to questions of the responsibility of the physician. We investigate the solutions offered by Galen, the most prolific medical author of classical Antiquity, in his medical and philosophical writings. Issues of ethics and moral psychology are discussed in numerous passages of Galen's works, and he even devoted a number of treatises exclusively to ethics. The main results of our analysis of these treatises and passages can be summarized as follows. Starting with his interpretation of a prominent Hippocratic maxim, we discuss possible motivations for Galen's re-definition of the relationship between physician and patient. For Galen, it was the physician, not the patient, who led the fight against the disease. This prominent position of the Galenic physician entailed particular obligations and responsibilities. But Galen also took the view that certain responsibilities resided with the patient, particularly that of selecting the right physician and keeping the prescribed diets. Moreover Galen thought that everybody ought to pursue the systematic liberation of the soul from passions and errors, guided by his ethical methodology. Galen gave disciplined care for one's health and acquisition of medical knowledge the status of moral duties for every educated person. For physicians, he provided a wealth of additional principles and rules of conduct, covering areas as diverse as experimentation with drugs, surgical risks, promulgation of knowledge on poisons, remuneration and other social impacts of medicine, and medical education, all of them inspired by respect for the health of man, the animal who topped the teleological hierarchy of creation, and medicine, the art whose task it was to preserve and restore man's health. Galen held medicine in exceptionally high esteem, even by the standards of physicians. His view of medicine as the divine art kat 'exochen is considered in the context of his high valuation of human life and health. Health assumed a high rank in the hierarchy of goods, for it provided the basis for all the other goods and virtues. For Galen, preservation and restoration of health could be attained only on the basis of a sound scientific methodology. He was reluctant to apply criteria external to medicine proper to its practice, and mostly judged the morality of medical activities by the adherence to the principles of a well-founded therapy and avoidance of undue harm.

This dissertation considers the possibility of there being such a thing as ethical authority in the modern world, and seeks to give an account of its nature. It begins by expressing a critical stance toward the idea that authority is always dependent upon having a certain kind of theoretical expertise. It raises the suggestion that there are other forms of authoritativeness, based on tradition, the display of superior skill, or impressive discriminative/perceptual powers. The bases of these forms of authority are not primarily, or even necessarily, of an intellectual kind. The idea that ethical authority depends upon something more than intellectual foundations may be traced to Aristotle, who claimed that the practical wisdom of an ethical authority (phronimos) is a matter of being good at deliberation with regard to things that conduce to living well. The model of ethical authority provided here is not that of theoretical expertise but closer to that of practical skill and/or the possession of perceptual powers of a particular kind. Ethical authority in the Aristotelian tradition depends upon intellectual powers, but of the 'practical intellect' and not necessarily (it depends on the context) any advanced theoretical expertise. It then proceeds to argue that there is an important place for practical wisdom in modern ethical life. Many of us live today in modem pluralistic societies where diverse conceptions of goodness and ethical rationality compete. We may well find the idea of reasonable allegiance to local phronimoi, who grasp and can illuminate the value of particular practices and institutions to fellow participants of a shared life, pure anathema. Modern ethical philosophy reflects this stance, and is characterized by a certain faith in rule-centred or procedural ethical theories for guiding human conduct. The argument of the second chapter seeks to show that there is little warrant for rejecting the role of ethical authorities (phronimoi) in contemporary pluralistic societies in favour of ethical proceduralism. Thereafter, in the third, fourth and fifth chapters, it turns to exploring the nature of practical wisdom, in particular, whether or not it is best construed as grounded in a theory of right conduct, or as a form of 'ethical knowledge', or as aiming at an objective truth; and to the task of characterizing a credible conception of the insightful phronimos - or what it might be like if this model of ethical authority is to claim relevance for contemporary life within pluralistic ethical communities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1994. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-176).

Thesis--Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-211) and index.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Briercrest Graduate School, 1996. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-98).