I left you with a question…
do we have character traits?
what a strange question……
but not so strange when we consider the word ethics…
the word ethics derive from the Greek and means, “related to one’s
character, or moral nature”……
ethics is found in one’s character, not in outside actions or right or wrong,
but in one’s character or moral nature…
and who among us demand we have a high moral character?
who even ask for us to consider right or wrong?
all I hear are crickets… because people are seeking things outside
of our character, our moral nature…
the pursuit of fame, money, titles, promotions, wealth…
these things have nothing to do with one’s character or moral
nature……they have nothing to do with ethics as defined by the word ethics…
the question becomes, do we practice our “ethics” with the prevailing
historical precepts of religion? “thou shall not kill” “thou shall not steal”
or do we understand our actions in terms of our own personal autonomy?
the state or condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life according to
reason, values or desires that are (and here is the key word) authentically
one’s own…
as the very idea of a political system that is authentic, is one political system and
one political system only, democracy…the state or condition of self-governance
or leading’s one life according to reason, values or desires that are authentic to
one’s own…the other political systems don’t engage in a system that is allows one
to lead one life according to reason, values or desires that are authentic to
one’s own life…
(the very fact that we have very limited autonomy today doesn’t destroy
the argument that democracy is the only form of government that is in line
with the concept of leading one’s own life according to reason, values or desires
that are authentic to own’s own life… if we ban certain things because
of religion, then we no longer have autonomy in those area’s… if we ban
abortion because of religious precepts, then we no longer have any
autonomy in this regard… I have severe back pain, I could really use
pain pills like Vicodin but because of the so called opioid crisis, where
people become addicted to them, I am forbidden to have these pills
even I am in so much pain that sometimes I can’t function because
I might, MIGHT, become addicted… I no longer have any medical autonomy
in this area…my medical needs are dictated to me by others who don’t
suffer the severe pain that I suffer… I don’t have any autonomy…
but its for your own good, one might say, and you know this how?)
that there is “no universal law of nature that defines morals”
is clear…….
so we can use rationality, Athens or we can use faith, Jerusalem……
do we have a state or condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life
according to reason’s, values, or desires that are authentically one’s own
that is living rationally, Athens…
or do we live life using precepts that are handing down by the
authorities, be it the state or be it religion, or be it a single person?
now the question becomes, is there a third path? somewhere in between
these two opposing idea’s?
it is often said that we are seeking something… some people seek
happiness and some seek knowledge and some seek contentment and
some seek materialistic objects like cars and houses and money
and some seek pleasure, some of it moderated pleasure(seek only pleasure but
not any pain and if we overindulge in our pleasures, we might be in pain, so
we should have only moderate pleasure to avoid pain) and some seek pleasure
at all costs…that there are so many possibilities shouldn’t surprise you…
think of the drives that motivate you to act…
and that is part of the equation of motivation… our needs…
we have needs, biological needs in the form of food, water, education,
shelter, health care, and yes, sex…think of our needs in terms of
Maslow’s pyramid… with the needs of a human being driving our
behavior… the lowest level is our physical needs, the next level is
our need for safety/security, the next level is our need for love/belonging,
the next level is our need for esteem… each level is a need, just like our need
for food and water and sex… the last level is the self-actualization level…
where we have passed beyond our needs and we reach the level of
reaching our full potential… where we find our possibilities and we
engage in reaching and fulfilling our possibilities… that is the last level
of the pyramid…until we find the next level…
so how much of our behavior, our actions is in line with achieving
our needs? I would suggest that ethics, our character, lies outside
of our needs…for example, my need for happiness is different
then my character, my moral nature……regardless of my own personal
needs of food, love, esteem or safety… I can still be a moral person,
my character can still be moral…
the question becomes, “to do the right thing”…
must I know what the right thing is before I can actually “do the right thing”
or can I do the right thing without even knowing what the word “right”
means here?
it has been said, especially in ancient philosophy that we must engage
in the “good life”… and then the ancients described the “good life” as
being virtuous… which they also equated with knowledge… to hold
knowledge is to be virtuous… knowledge and virtue were considered to
be the same thing especially by Socrates…if one committed an “evil”
act, it was because that person was ignorant or lacked knowledge of
the right thing to do… good and evil were questions of knowledge…
and to have knowledge was to be virtuous…
next post will go on…
Kropotkin