The Dalai Lama reaches past religious boundaries in this call for a new ethics practical for peoples of all beliefs, religious and secular.  Although religions have provided ethical instruction in the past, they are losing their hold.  Therefore we need an ethics which does not depend on religions, one which is at home in both religious and secular ( Read more... )

I just finished another book related to ethics, and here is my review.  I critique Williams' model of shame, but I save that for a separate segment after the review.  In the critique, I also explore how shame might be applied to Brendan Myers' model of virtue as presented in The Other Side of Virtue.

Review

Did the Greeks of Homer's era have a ( Read more... )

Welcome to the next level of pagan writing on ethics.  The Other Side of Virtue is a landmark work worthy of academic and general audiences alike.

Author Brendan Myers, a.k.a. Brendan Cathbad Myers, tackles the subject of virtue ethics in the ancient and modern world.  He investigates the ethics of Heroic and Classical peoples of ancient Europe,  ( Read more... )

 This is a trimmed down version of the timeline, focusing on ethics in ADF.
An ADF Ethics Timeline

1983 Founding of ADF.  Isaac circulates an open letter announcing ADF (http://www.adf.org/articles/identity/origins.html).  Isaac Bonewits counts the founding from Samhain 1983 (as mentioned in the audio file "An Hour with the Founder" from Wellsping ' ( Read more... )

Here's a delightful poem I just found on the ADF web site.  It's to help kids remember the nine virtues.

Nine Virtues

Your first virtue, little one, is to be

Warm and open -- that’s hospitality

Moderation means neither all nor nothing be.

And a creative person demonstrates fertility.

The middle three virtues I shall tell you here:

don't give up, ( Read more... )

Like I said in a previous post, I'm trying to put together a list of primary sources that could count as "widom literature" from Indo-European cultures.  I took the question to the ADF-Scholars list, but most seemed rather confused by my question, and only suggested Marcus Aurelius, as if he (and perhaps by extension Greco-Roman philosophy) were ( Read more... )

I have been reading Pierre Hadot's Philosophy As a Way of Life, which is all about how philosophy used to be more than mere theory.  In the ancient world, it was a total way of life, a spirituality.  Hadot gives particular attention to spiritual exercises.  I'm gonna try to outline them here.  I'm also drawing on an essay by Elen Buzare, which ( Read more... )

I'm trying to put together a reading list of Indo-European wisdom literature.  The genre is perhaps best known in Biblical studies, but there are plenty of pagan Indo-European examples too.  I eventually want to be able to publish this list, maybe in Oak Leaves or on the ADF web site, as a resource for folks looking to deepen their practice of ( Read more... )

Finally!

The first six essays have been changed only slightly since they were last posted in this journal. New items are the introduction, conclusion, and essays on Hospitality, Moderation, Fertility, and Kinship.

----------------------------------------

The Nine Virtues

Introduction Do the nine virtues have a place in my life? What are their ( Read more... )

‡Wisdom

PRIEST
arrogance← wisdom →gullibility
↓ ↓ ↓
insight judgment sagacityHe knows alone who has wandered wide ( Read more... )