The criticism is that in focusing on abstract principles of justification, modern theories have tended to overlook the crucial role of motivation in the ethical life.
But what are the abstract ideas, the justifications, the words, that put such acts of destruction into motion?
They appear to require a strong partiality toward those with shared biological features, physical appearances, or origins, a partiality that conflicts with equally strong, if more abstract convictions about the justification for our conduct towards others.
Five of the 14 reporting criteria showed a significant trend for improvement: reporting on loss of clusters to follow-up (P=0.01); identification as "cluster randomised" in title or abstract (P=0.038); providing a justification for the clustered design (P=0.038); reporting whether or not outcome assessors had been blinded (P=0.019); and reporting of the number of clusters randomised (P=0.035).
It was not abstract theory that provided the justification for the index fund, but the compelling evidence that money managers as a group cannot beat the market; they must lose to the market by the amount of the fees and costs charged by active fund managers.Gross return in the stockmarket, minus the costs of investing, equals the net return that investors as a group must share.
In Jürgen Habermas' words (Habermas 1979: 205): "Every general theory of justification remains peculiarly abstract in relation to the historical forms of legitimate domination.
A qualified version of the negative answer is offered by Michael Davis (2005) who argues that in practice, if not in abstract theory, there is no justification for torture.[2] A third perspective combines elements of both of these two groups, namely, that torture can in some extreme emergencies be morally justified, but that torture ought never to be legalised or otherwise institutionalised.
Sin is not an abstract theological notion like holiness, justification, or forgiveness, with little if any empirical content.
That was a more abstract, theoretical strategy that became the justification when the weapons of mass destruction didn't show up.
Co-existing with the sense of guilt and indebtedness, the respondents also expressed different levels of reflexivity on the more abstract elements of filial piety as a justification for choosing career/family development in the UK.
