Ethics and the Faculties of the Soul

[Drunk On Love]

I've been reading A History of Islamic Philosophy by Majid Fakhry. Just finished reading the chapter on the 10th century Islamic philosopher Miskawayh . The section on his understanding of ethics and how they relate to the three major faculties of the soul was pretty interesting and I wanted to post about it and get some opinions. His views on ethics are similar to those expressed by Christian philosophers of the time as well so I think this might be of value to Christians as much as Muslims. This understanding of ethics has root in Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic philosophy and represents a harmonizing of the different models.

According to Miskawayh the soul possess three major faculties. Notice where he places these attributes because they bring to mind the the occult or hidden / psychic body of Tantra with its chakras.

1. The rational or angelic which is centered in the Brain.
2. The appetitive or bestial located in the liver
3. The passionate or leonine, located in the heart

"From this division it follows that the virtues, like their parallel vices, are divisible into three corresponding groups. Thus when the rational part of the soul is moderate and yearns for genuine knowledge, which is its true object, it's virtue, which is science or wisdom, would ensue. When the appetitive faculty seeks its own object in moderation and complies with the directions of reason, its virtue, which is temperance and its concomitant, liberality, would ensue. Finally when the passionate faculty is ruled by by the rational, self control and its concomitant virtue, courage, would result. From the conjunction of these virtues will ultimately result in the virtue of justice, which is the excellence or perfection of the the other three, in so far as they are related to one another and are exercised in due proportion. That is why the principal virtues are deemed by the philosophers to consist in these four only: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice; and their corresponding vices are designated as ignorance, incontinence, cowardice, and injustice.

Subsidiary virtues can be subsumed under these cardinal ones. Thus under wisdom the following virtues are given: intelligence, memory, prudence, keenness , and teachability. Under temperance are modesty, meekness, forbearance, liberality, integrity, contentedness, good nature, self discipline, docility, peacefulness, dignity and piety. Under justice are friendship, gregariousness, kindness to ones kin, gratitude, good companionship, fairness, affability, and worship."

 

[Drunk On Love]

So "justice" is the virtue that is brought about through the proper functioning and relation of the three faculties of the soul.

 

[Drunk On Love]

A contemporary Christian philosopher Yahia b. 'Adi held to a similar model:

"Yahia attributes the fundamental differences in ethical traits, as does Miskawayh, to the disharmony that may result from the stresses and strains that set the three powers of the Soul, the appetitive, the passionate, and the rational, one against the other. Thus when the appetitive power takes a firm hold of the person,he will become more akin to beasts than humans, will shun the company of fellow men, and will give free rein to his natural impulses and desires....

As to the rational power, which alone sets man apart from the beasts, man's excellence is bound up with its domination over the two other powers. The virtues proper to this power are the assimilation of knowledge, the right conduct of of one's private and public affairs, friendliness, charity forbearance and temperance. It's vices are cunning, hypocrisy, and jealousy, which obviously result from the ill use to which it is put. The cultivation of the rational virtues is the ground of virtue in general, since the man in whom these virtues are forceful will be equipped to moderate his appetative and irascible powers and bring them into harmony with one another...

As to the acquisition of virtue, which can be achieved only progressively or through habituation, the first step is the subjection of the appetitive and irascible powers of the soul to the authority of reason. Thus in taming the appetites, one should try to divert the impulse from the base object toward which it might tend, to a more worthy object of the same type. If, at first, the impulse should prove recalcitrant, he should not give up, but should keep trying, until the soul is coaxed into obedience. "

 

[Drunk On Love]

So none of the faculties are evil in and of themselves they simply need to be set on the right course through the use of reason and training. Even the appetitive and passionate have a useful and good role to play when they function in an ordered and rational manner.

 

[benglobal]

I

According to Miskawayh the soul possess three major faculties. Notice where he places these attributes because they bring to mind the the occult or hidden / psychic body of Tantra with its chakras.



1. The rational or angelic which is centered in the Brain.
2. The appetitive or bestial located in the liver
3. The passionate or leonine, located in the heart

Kundalini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Have a read of the link, this will give you a better understanding ( I hope). Any definition of soul can be very subjective so I won't go there. In the link scroll down to unpreparedness. This is where people get a 'born again' application but can't articulate what has happened. They've awakened this energy flow through non planned means and 'just feel different'. Unfortunatly they then connect to the doctrine of their locality or birth and deem that 'as the way'. Also some within religious set-ups have this happen to them as a signed up member already and thus conclude that the system they are signed up to is what has given them this 'feeling different'. Also this awakening suddenly can be off putting for some as they feel completely different and it can run into problems. When you can open up the crown Chakra or third eye at the frontal lobe the left hand and right hand parts of the brain connect with their Neural firing patterns that creates a whole from the said parts bringing about a new state of being. The brain wave fuction lierally changes to bring about a connected feeling within. Jesus and others could bring about this change with a laying on of hands which through an energy transferance that changed the brain wave fuctioning by enabling the kundalini to rise up through the Chakra points to open up the crown Chakra and enable a new blessed person, changng them from possessed to unpossessed, but that really is just changing them from an unnatural state through 'life's dysfunction' where the body was working in a dysfuctional, unnatural state, to a natural state where they could feel as they should, thus feeling connected and 'at one' with all around and bringing about more applied moral actions. Some apply this moral action because they are told to (scripture) and conclude that without the telling (atheist/non beliver) is to decend into immoral oblivion. But those that FEEL this connected state don't need to be told because it's a natural state to their being and any moral application is a result of this natural state. Life's dysfunction would be the sin we are born to, not original sin because we are born to limitless potential but the dysfucntion gets applied through our early years by the collective 'as is' to how we live globally which impacts on the indivdual to create an unnatural living state and a lessened moral character.

Edit, typo's galore.

 

[bling]

In Christianity the ethics we are trying to mimic is that of complete unselfishness like God and Christ. We are doing everything for the sake of others and nothing for our own sake. Our eating and sleeping is so we can better serve others. All we do is out of unconditional Love shown and given us by God and thus extended through us to others.

The problem with the “philosophers” you quote is they are not bring God into the role of ethics in humans and make it sound like something humans achieve. Ethics without God’s Love are worthless.

 

[Eudaimonist]

The problem with the “philosophers” you quote is they are not bring God into the role of ethics in humans and make it sound like something humans achieve.

That is what makes those philosophers awesome.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Eudaimonist]

So "justice" is the virtue that is brought about through the proper functioning and relation of the three faculties of the soul.

That philosopher sounds mainly influenced by Plato. I don't see all that much that is Aristotelian or Stoic about the philosophy, unless he is simply placing Aristotelian or Stoic virtues in a Platonic framework. Nevertheless, it's a good effort on his part.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Drunk On Love]

That philosopher sounds mainly influenced by Plato. I don't see all that much that is Aristotelian or Stoic about the philosophy, unless he is simply placing Aristotelian or Stoic virtues in a Platonic framework. Nevertheless, it's a good effort on his part.

It's a short chapter and even then I probably didn't quote all the relevant material. He goes on to say that his view of the proper mean between extremes and between the different facilitates was more Aristotelian in nature. He also mentioned a stoic influence but didn't really describe it.

 

[Eudaimonist]

It's a short chapter and even then I probably didn't quote all the relevant material. He goes on to say that his view of the proper mean between extremes and between the different facilitates was more Aristotelian in nature. He also mentioned a stoic influence but didn't really describe it.

I see. He certainly sounds like an interesting philosopher.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Rationalt]

I've been reading A History of Islamic Philosophy by Majid Fakhry. Just finished reading the chapter on the 10th century Islamic philosopher Miskawayh . The section on his understanding of ethics and how they relate to the three major faculties of the soul was pretty interesting and I wanted to post about it and get some opinions. His views on ethics are similar to those expressed by Christian philosophers of the time as well so I think this might be of value to Christians as much as Muslims. This understanding of ethics has root in Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic philosophy and represents a harmonizing of the different models.

According to Miskawayh the soul possess three major faculties. Notice where he places these attributes because they bring to mind the the occult or hidden / psychic body of Tantra with its chakras.

1. The rational or angelic which is centered in the Brain.
2. The appetitive or bestial located in the liver
3. The passionate or leonine, located in the heart

"From this division it follows that the virtues, like their parallel vices, are divisible into three corresponding groups. Thus when the rational part of the soul is moderate and yearns for genuine knowledge, which is its true object, it's virtue, which is science or wisdom, would ensue. When the appetitive faculty seeks its own object in moderation and complies with the directions of reason, its virtue, which is temperance and its concomitant, liberality, would ensue. Finally when the passionate faculty is ruled by by the rational, self control and its concomitant virtue, courage, would result. From the conjunction of these virtues will ultimately result in the virtue of justice, which is the excellence or perfection of the the other three, in so far as they are related to one another and are exercised in due proportion. That is why the principal virtues are deemed by the philosophers to consist in these four only: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice; and their corresponding vices are designated as ignorance, incontinence, cowardice, and injustice.

Subsidiary virtues can be subsumed under these cardinal ones. Thus under wisdom the following virtues are given: intelligence, memory, prudence, keenness , and teachability. Under temperance are modesty, meekness, forbearance, liberality, integrity, contentedness, good nature, self discipline, docility, peacefulness, dignity and piety. Under justice are friendship, gregariousness, kindness to ones kin, gratitude, good companionship, fairness, affability, and worship."

None of this has any correlation to Quran or Muhammad's actions.

Check this criticism of the author(Majid Fakhry.):Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an :: Middle East Quarterly


An Interpretation of the Qur'an. By Majid Fakhry.
Many new translations seek to improve upon past translations. Sometimes they fall short. This is the case with Majid Fakhry's translation.[70] A professor emeritus of philosophy at the American University of Beirut, Fakhry seeks to present the Qur'an in comprehensible English, correcting "the errors or lapses" of previous translations.[71] For someone versed in Islamic philosophy, and therefore presumably aware of the focus on the linguistic uniqueness of the Qur'an, Fakhry's prosaic rendition never comes close to communicating to the reader the powerful rhetoric of Islam's main document. His inattention to verb structure results, as noted by one reviewer in an academic journal, in the "tendency to translate an active Arabic verb into an English passive and vice versa. This undercuts both theological clarity and rhetorical effectiveness."[72] While the publisher claimed that Al-Azhar University had approved the translation, the facsimile Arabic document included with the book simply notes that "there is nothing in the translation that goes counter to the Islamic Faith, and that there is no objection to its printing and distribution."[73] This is an appropriate formula for any book containing Qur'anic verse and does not confer special status. Since this work does not contribute in any specific way to what is already available in a crowded market, Fakhry's work will lack staying power. Its absence in mosques indicates its lack of status among Muslims. The unflattering academic reviews[74] also indicate that, although produced by a Western university press, it is likely to be overlooked by the academic world as well.


With regards to Ebn Meskavayh it is already commented that his philosphy has very little to do with Islamic texts like quran or hadiths.

 

[Rationalt]

I




Kundalini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Have a read of the link, this will give you a better understanding ( I hope). ....

The wiki link says This article needs additional citations for verification.

 

[Rationalt]

I'm not quite sure about that
my bestial faculty has a rather evil hunger for munchies right now

May be you need guidance to set it on the right course .

 

[Drunk On Love]

Many new translations seek to improve upon past translations. Sometimes they fall short. This is the case with Majid Fakhry's translation.

I wasn't even aware that he translated the Quran. For that reason I can't really agree or disagree with your assessment of it. I will have to look for that at the book store some time soon.

 

[Drunk On Love]

The wiki link says This article needs additional citations for verification.

You can read about the topic on other more trusted web pages if you would like. I've read a few books on the subject but I have no way of linking to them. I just used wikipedia because it was easy.

You can find a few different encyclopedias here to look at the entries on kundalini and tantra if you want to learn more and don't trust wikipedia:

You can also find more in depth looks at the subtle centers or chakras from an Islamic (generally Sufi) perspective by doing a web search for "Sufi, Chakras, Lataif" or something along those lines. The Sufi persepctives tend to be a little more elaborate then the simple model used by philosophers.

 

[benglobal]

The wiki link says This article needs additional citations for verification.

Citation needed for you perhaps but not me. I practice Kriya yoga which is to live the physical subjective experience so any citation one way or the other is objective opinion of which I care not to partake.
I’ve attached another Wiki link. Have a scroll down to Hindu revivalism and reception in the west and the health benefits that can be attained. Yes there are drawbacks as there is to any system, as I’ve said before there is no cure all. Also see what Christianity has to say in the link and in reference to the OP also Sufism.
Any inner journey is to open up to the outer experience which is to open up to the love of ALL and that is Gods love, with a capitol G.
This will be my last post here within, so all the best, peace and love to you all.

Yoga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia