A Version of Moral Realism on the Basis of Philosophical Analysis of Moral Action

Abstract

On the basis of moral realism, moral values are independent of human mind and also have a factual reality which humans attempt to discover them. This approach has faced critical challenges in contemporary philosophy, that’s why most of moral philosophers have put it aside. This paper offers a version of moral realism on the basis of philosophical analysis of free human behaviors. In Islamic philosophy, human is an intentional agent, i.e. bodily behaviors are always done to achieve to some goal. In these behaviors - which moral actions are included in them either – the goal has a fundamental role in behavior since the primary desire of agent is to achieve to a specific goal, but since achieving to the aforementioned goal won’t be realized without doing an action, the desire of that goal will be the final cause of realization of the action. The conclusion is that since action is done as a preliminary to the goal, therefore value of each action will be determined by the following goal.