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Research Article
How Secular Reason Undermines Human Dignity and Values in the West: The Christian Path to Restore Humanity
Joshua Ishaya Mamza*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, September 2026
Pages:
107-114
Received:
17 November 2025
Accepted:
1 December 2025
Published:
11 July 2026
Abstract: This article examines the gradual displacement of the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei as the primary ground of human dignity in Western intellectual history. From the seventeenth century onward, successive philosophical movements privileged autonomous reason, empirical sensation, or historical process over divine revelation as the source of epistemological and moral authority. The analysis proceeds chronologically, drawing primarily (though not exclusively) on the historical surveys of John M. Frame (2015) and W. Andrew Hoffecker (2007), while noting significant primary texts. The cumulative effect was the removal of a transcendent anchor for objective human value, resulting in various forms of relativism and consequentialist ethics. The article concludes by outlining a constructive approach by which confessional communities may re-articulate the intellectual and institutional resources of Christian anthropology in societies that once held human beings with dignity.
Abstract: This article examines the gradual displacement of the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei as the primary ground of human dignity in Western intellectual history. From the seventeenth century onward, successive philosophical movements privileged autonomous reason, empirical sensation, or historical process over divine revelation as the source of epi...
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Research Article
Considerations of Contemporary Crisis Exclusively Within the Boundaries of Phenomenology
Irakli Batiashvili*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, September 2026
Pages:
115-121
Received:
29 June 2026
Accepted:
15 July 2026
Published:
30 July 2026
Abstract: The subject of our philosophical reflection is the latest modification of the crisis of European humanity; however, this reflection is conducted strictly within phenomenological boundaries. Specifically, these considerations and analyses are grounded in the method developed by Edmund Husserl and, in their consistent progression, are continuously guided by it. We would like to note that in this paper we will still use the term “Western crisis” because it includes “European” and because the essential characteristics of the phenomenon of the European crisis largely apply to the entire Western world. We investigate whether the phenomenon of the contemporary Western crisis is manifested in a certain type of consciousness and, if so, how; in particular, we examine and analyze this manifestation within two opposing types of intentionality, which are characterized by more or less stable worldview attitudes: namely, modern liberal consciousness and conservative consciousness. Our explication reveals the distinct forms in which “crisis” manifests itself for these two polarized modes of consciousness and clarifies how radically differently the whole-objective sense of “crisis” is constituted for each of them. Finally, the process of constitution carried out by these two contrary types of consciousness necessarily implies a third type, within whose intentionality the sense of the “contemporary crisis” is constituted in yet another manner. It is noteworthy that precisely this perception and understanding of crisis is marked by a particularly intense and comprehensive character. The analysis presented here opens the way for future innovative studies of the crisis of Western civilization and its various modifications. Specifically, we have opportunity to examine these phenomena not through a naive, traditional approach, but rather as they manifest themselves within the horizons of different types of meaning-constituting consciousness. Such an approach will enable us to gain a much deeper insight into the problems and complexities of Western civilization.
Abstract: The subject of our philosophical reflection is the latest modification of the crisis of European humanity; however, this reflection is conducted strictly within phenomenological boundaries. Specifically, these considerations and analyses are grounded in the method developed by Edmund Husserl and, in their consistent progression, are continuously gu...
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Research Article
Bioethics After the ‘End of IDEOLOGIES’: From the Myth of Ideological Disappearance to the Transformation of Normative Frameworks
Torna Soro*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, September 2026
Pages:
122-132
Received:
17 August 2026
Accepted:
31 August 2026
Published:
18 September 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijp.20261403.13
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: This article examines the background to bioethical debates in the context of contemporary claims regarding the “end of ideologies”. While bioethics is often presented as a neutral framework for ethical decision-making in medicine and the life sciences, this study argues that it remains deeply rooted in competing normative and philosophical traditions. For this, it adopts a conceptual and historical qualitative approach based on a critical and narrative review of the literature on bioethics, governance of biomedicine, political and moral philosophy, and sociology. The corpus was selected to include seminal works in bioethics, fundamental analyses of moral pluralism and decision-making in bioethics, as well as reference works of the debate on ideology, biopolitics, deliberation and technocratic governance. Drawing on these sources, this analysis reconstructs the axiological frameworks underpinning contemporary bioethical debates and examines whether the purported disappearance of ideologies from the bioethical debate leads to a real post-ideological bioethics. The article argues that ideology is not eliminated but rather its expression is transformed into implicit normative structures embedded within decision-making processes. Ideologies presence in bioethical debates is masked by what might be termed procedural and technological bioethics. These approaches aim to objectify the debates and ensure that bioethics meets the requirements of the scientific method. This analysis challenges the notion of bioethical neutrality and highlights the enduring role of ideological frameworks in shaping biomedical ethics. Ideological and axiological perspectives thus permeate bioethical debates and shape the direction of bioethical decisions and regulatory provisions, though an institutionalized arena for managing moral pluralism.
Abstract: This article examines the background to bioethical debates in the context of contemporary claims regarding the “end of ideologies”. While bioethics is often presented as a neutral framework for ethical decision-making in medicine and the life sciences, this study argues that it remains deeply rooted in competing normative and philosophical traditio...
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