The purpose of the present study is to introduce some practical solutions to the problem of transgression in society through benefitting from the teleology of the rational training of Heraclitus, the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher. This qualitative study was carried out
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The purpose of the present study is to introduce some practical solutions to the problem of transgression in society through benefitting from the teleology of the rational training of Heraclitus, the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher. This qualitative study was carried out following Frankena’s practical syllogism. In doing so, the researchers firstly investigated Heraclitus’ works and extracted the related discussions. Next, in order to gain access to the ultimate and intermediary goals of rational training, they considered an initial must as the premise of the first deduction and, then, based on a realist philosophical proposition as the second premise of the practical syllogism, its conclusion, which is the same ultimate goal of rational training in Heraclitus’ logos-centered philosophy, was extracted. Finally, based on this ultimate goal and other philosophical principles, they inferred the intermediary goals of Heraclitus’ rational training and, given the findings, presented some strategies for establishing the culture of normativeness. The findings of the study indicate that the end of rational training in Heraclitus’ view is to connect to logos (universal intellect) and to learn about it so that Man can discover the principles and rules of the universal intellect, move ahead accordingly, and attain perfection. Hence, it can be said that attaining the knowledge of laws is the first goal in the process of solving the problem of norm-breaking and moving towards the ideal society based on the laws. Moreover, given the intermediary goals of Heraclitus’ rational training, it can be concluded that, in order to attain knowledge and act according to the norms, rational training must be realized at three levels: cognitive, including self-knowledge and social understanding; strategic, including reference-orientedness, and ethical, including fighting against whims and developing good behavior. In this way, one can overcome the problem of transgression or norm-breaking.
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