Neo-aristotelean! Sorry, that's really flippant. You have such tendencies, because you emphasize ethics as practise, and take the awesomely Nussbaumian stance that the best kind of ethical training is training in which you are somehow forced to project your imagination into the other.
I think I'd agree with your last substantive paragraph, substituting "mythology" for "religion". Nussbaum develops an extensive theory of dramatic tragedy... essentially, certain forms of art can force a person into considering the position of others... if this is all you're looking for (something which teaches you compassion), then what we really need is a form of mythology that does this while integrating itself into our core cultural values.
And yes: these are ancient ideas, mainly forgotten in the west until Aristotle was rediscovered... again.
Neo-aristotelean! Sorry, that's really flippant. You have such tendencies, because you emphasize ethics as practise, and take the awesomely Nussbaumian stance that the best kind of ethical training is training in which you are somehow forced to project your imagination into the other.
I'm a little self-conscious writing about ethics on this journal because I know that my formal coverage of it is very weak even though it's being read by people like you who study this stuff basically for a living. Is it irritating, as a reader, to read amateurish stuff in your field?
I think I'd agree with your last substantive paragraph, substituting "mythology" for "religion". Nussbaum develops an extensive theory of dramatic tragedy... essentially, certain forms of art can force a person into considering the position of others... if this is all you're looking for (something which teaches you compassion), then what we really need is a form of mythology that does this while integrating itself into our core cultural values.That's interesting. After
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it's being read by people like you who study this stuff basically for a living. Is it irritating, as a reader, to read amateurish stuff in your field?
*gasp* Oh, man. I am no expert. And I also forget that not everyone has taken mythology courses: yeah, myth=some sort of culturally central story. Here, read this, and ignore the fact that he sounds like a bit of a fruitcake in the first paragraph
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Nice post, Seb. Glad I took the time to read it...
I would ally itself in my mind to my recent ruminations on the Oedipus myth/story. If Oedipus can alternatively be translated as either sore foot or know foot we might see a connection similar to your active or reflective ethics. What philosophy then becomes is the abstract practice before action seeking an ethical outcome, or one might say it is conscious prayer in reason, forming reasonable contingencies for the future by means of reflection on memory (both personal and social) and imagination of future conditions and situations.
These days we read much (social memory) and often of ethical situations in reflection or in contingency (is contingency a word used much in philosophy to your knowledge?). So I might see a relation with was along with the more common is/ought.
The solution, then, wouldn't be to try to hammer sloganistic moral maxims into the heads of children, but rather to make sure that the institutions peple are brought up and trained in teach ethics as a skill.
yes.
the crazy thing about the declarative way of thinking/doing is that when translating and "practicing" metta, one could easily deceive oneself about one's state of awareness -- letting one's self-observation of the execution of mette allow one to think poorly of the very person.
perhaps prayer could be a form of it.. it definitely depends on the pray-er. but observation-wise, i have had the impression that the more honest "i wish good things for x" prayers have come from more lovingly kind people. and then there are the "i am glad i am not so-and-so, but help him/her" prayers, or the (i call it) 'lecture prayers' of the self-conscience performance variety. (fairly irrelevant and included only to satisfy my disillusionment with christianity. because i'm better than they are (; )
Comments 5
Neo-aristotelean! Sorry, that's really flippant. You have such tendencies, because you emphasize ethics as practise, and take the awesomely Nussbaumian stance that the best kind of ethical training is training in which you are somehow forced to project your imagination into the other.
I think I'd agree with your last substantive paragraph, substituting "mythology" for "religion". Nussbaum develops an extensive theory of dramatic tragedy... essentially, certain forms of art can force a person into considering the position of others... if this is all you're looking for (something which teaches you compassion), then what we really need is a form of mythology that does this while integrating itself into our core cultural values.
And yes: these are ancient ideas, mainly forgotten in the west until Aristotle was rediscovered... again.
Reply
I'm a little self-conscious writing about ethics on this journal because I know that my formal coverage of it is very weak even though it's being read by people like you who study this stuff basically for a living. Is it irritating, as a reader, to read amateurish stuff in your field?
I think I'd agree with your last substantive paragraph, substituting "mythology" for "religion". Nussbaum develops an extensive theory of dramatic tragedy... essentially, certain forms of art can force a person into considering the position of others... if this is all you're looking for (something which teaches you compassion), then what we really need is a form of mythology that does this while integrating itself into our core cultural values.That's interesting. After ( ... )
Reply
*gasp* Oh, man. I am no expert. And I also forget that not everyone has taken mythology courses: yeah, myth=some sort of culturally central story. Here, read this, and ignore the fact that he sounds like a bit of a fruitcake in the first paragraph ( ... )
Reply
I would ally itself in my mind to my recent ruminations on the Oedipus myth/story. If Oedipus can alternatively be translated as either sore foot or know foot we might see a connection similar to your active or reflective ethics. What philosophy then becomes is the abstract practice before action seeking an ethical outcome, or one might say it is conscious prayer in reason, forming reasonable contingencies for the future by means of reflection on memory (both personal and social) and imagination of future conditions and situations.
These days we read much (social memory) and often of ethical situations in reflection or in contingency (is contingency a word used much in philosophy to your knowledge?). So I might see a relation with was along with the more common is/ought.
Reply
yes.
the crazy thing about the declarative way of thinking/doing is that when translating and "practicing" metta, one could easily deceive oneself about one's state of awareness -- letting one's self-observation of the execution of mette allow one to think poorly of the very person.
perhaps prayer could be a form of it.. it definitely depends on the pray-er. but observation-wise, i have had the impression that the more honest "i wish good things for x" prayers have come from more lovingly kind people. and then there are the "i am glad i am not so-and-so, but help him/her" prayers, or the (i call it) 'lecture prayers' of the self-conscience performance variety. (fairly irrelevant and included only to satisfy my disillusionment with christianity. because i'm better than they are (; )
Reply
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