Moral Issues Philosophy means the

love of wisdom, and ethics is a crucial component of living a life of wisdom.

What Is Good? How do we know what is

good? How can we be sure we made the right decision? Are there ethical tools we can learn to use to make moral decisions in our own lives? These are some of the questions we will be investigating.

Questions I find philosophy interesting precisely

because it is not about the right answers, but about the right questions.

Enjoy Thinking! A goal of a class like this is not only to

introduce you to some basic information about ethics, but also to encourage you to simply enjoy thinking about the great questions, especially in relation to morals and values.

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (1915-

1968), the Trappist monk and author of many wonderful books, said he was more interested in good questions than good answers and that is in the spirit of what I am hoping you will receive from a class like this one.

Jacob Needleman

We tend to lose touch with the questions that make us ache, or what the philosopher Jacob Needleman calls the indestructible question.

Dualism Dualism is the sense that there are two

opposing forces in the universe.

An Opportunity A closer look, a philosophical look, allows

us to see that these two forces provide an opportunity that would not exist if these forces did not exist.

Our Potential Needleman: “It is there, in the space

between worlds, that humans actually taste the exalted unity and life-meaning that is our possibility and destiny.”

The indestructible question When philosophy becomes the search for

meaning it is facilitating the indestructible question, the question of who I am and what is the nature of this cosmos I find myself in.

The Science of Awareness But what is the source of this awareness?

Who is aware? Now that is the lost science of awareness. We take awareness so much for granted that we don’t bother studying awareness itself. And why is that?

Socrates The great Greek

philosopher Socrates got into all sorts of trouble because he asked questions that exposed our human ignorance.

An Opening When you are in a state of questioning, you

are open. But as soon as you choose an answer, it doesn’t matter which answer, you fall out of that in between space that is the opening.

A Breakthrough Needleman: “This opening only emerges

when the mind comes to the end of its tether and all its usual patterns of thought have proved fruitless.”

Delphi The oracle in ancient

Greece at Delphi said; “Know thyself!” And that becomes the mantra for philosophy as a search for meaning.

Humans are Asleep We live in a state of forgetfulness and then

wonder why we do not experience joy and serenity.

Two Movements Amazingly enough, there can be a

movement outward and a movement inward, both at the same time.

The Sacred What is the sacred? The sacred is that

which allows us to bear these two movements within us, two movements we can all experience any time we turn our attention within.

Soren Kierkegaard The Danish philosopher

Kierkegaard wrote: “Life was not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.” Learning to love the great questions, rather than turning away from them, helps us live this mystery.

Beyond the Ethical Needleman: “Beyond the ethical, beyond

the choice of the ‘good’ in human life, and the concomitant exclusion of the ‘evil,” there lies a mysterious act of existential spirituality, a struggle to accept the whole of our individual life and structure with all its fragmentation and many-leveled contradictions.”

Awareness Needleman “We have not yet found, or

even sought for, the active Mind, the awareness that calls forth a Power through its complete attention to the whole of reality. This world is also myself.”

Watching Is there a way to be active in life, making

the choices we need to make, doing the ethical thing, trying to find the good while at the same time remaining non-attached on the inside? Not judging, but watching.

Seeking Wisdom Philosophy asks us to seek wisdom right

there in the midst of the contradiction of all our fears and yearnings.

The Struggle Without the struggle there is no growth. It is

by rubbing two sticks together that you can build up enough heat top create a fire. Well it is the same for the inner flame. We need to rub the two sticks of “yes” and “no” together in order to develop an inner flame.

Facing the Struggle When the struggle is seen as good and

worthy then we might be more willing to be engaged with it, rather than turn and run in the opposite direction.

The Taoist Circle Philosophy teaches

that the reconciliation of the opposites does not happen by one winning over the other, but by a force that is invited to hold both together in a larger embrace.

Beyond Answers What we find is not an answer, but an

experience. What we come to is not a place, but a space of openness, what we seek is not more experiences but that which is aware of experience.

Philosophy as a Path Philosophy can be of practical help to us all

whether we are religious or nonreligious if it helps us to remember that it is in openness that awareness grows, and it is in awareness that the sacred is made welcome. And it is in this sense that philosophy and the search for meaning becomes a spiritual path.

Integral Philosophy Integral Philosophy is known for its

universality and inclusiveness. It is interested in wisdom wherever it is to be found.

Does Consciousness Evolve? Integral Philosophy is developmental. And

another way of talking about development is to talk about evolution. In other words, the universe itself seems to be developing. One aspect of this universe is human psychology.

The Evolution of Consciousness Every child in the process of growing up

recapitulates the entire human journey!

Jean Gebser Jean Gebser writes of

four general stages that he called archaic, magic, mythic, and mental/rational.

The Archaic Stage The archaic stage is the stage of our earliest

human ancestors. This is where people were mainly concerned with survival and lived as hunters and gatherers. Instincts are very much alive as they are in animals. A distinct self is barely awakened or sustained.

The Archaic Stage Wilber: “This archaic structure is especially

evident in the universal myths of a Garden of Eden, of a time before the ‘fall’ into separation and knowledge and reflection, a time of innocence.”

The Archaic Stage Archaic folks came to inhabit our planet

three to six million years ago and it may very well be that they are our ancestors until about 200,000 years ago.

The Magic Stage Thus there arose, sometime in the dim past

of prehistory, the awakening of a defended self-in-here versus the world-out-there. At this early stage, then, although the self is distinguished from the natural environment, it remains magically intermingled with it.

The Magic Stage Everything is interconnected and this leads

to the magical view of the world. People in a magical world “very commonly believe that between the object and the image of it there is a real connection and that it is accordingly possible to communicate an impression to the original object through the copy or image.”

The Mythic Stage The mythic stage coincides with one of the

most significant changes ever to occur to humans and this was the birth of agriculture and the world of civilization that we recognize and where we really pick up the story here in a philosophy class.

The Mythic Stage Stories was how people made sense of their

world and found answers to questions about where they came from and where they were going.

Mythological Doubt Saggs: “Indisputably, before the end of the

second millennium, there were those in [the ancient world] whose experience of life made them unable to accept the comfortable old belief that the gods rewarded virtue and punished vice, and led them to begin to seek solutions outside the cultic framework of polytheistic religion. They had begun to ask questions which myth could not answer.”

Mythological Doubt The gods are very human and immoral and

capricious. Other than being more powerful than humans there is not much about them that inspires religious devotion. This is the beginning of the questioning of myth and the beginning of human reason asking questions in a way that has never stopped.

Mythological Doubt People were becoming more interested in

finding things out for themselves rather than simply believing in the stories they were being told, stories that were no longer making sense.

The Rational Stage Philosophy begins with a belief that the

world is intelligible. Maybe not right away or easily, but somehow things make sense if only we can figure it out.

The Rational Stage People were beginning to understand the

stories as not literally true, but as symbolically significant. Modern dream interpretation tries to do the same thing with the symbols that appear in our dreams. What do they mean and what are they telling us?

Thales Thales’ prediction of

an eclipse is significant because it meant natural laws could be studied and understood rather than feared.

The Rational Stage This means that answers were no longer

sought in revelation and divination, but through the methodological use of one’s intelligence. It cannot be stressed how radical a step this was, especially when you put it into the context of a 14 billion year journey. Something new and exciting was being born!

The Rational Stage We are able to correct the information

coming into our senses by trusting our minds ability to reason.

The Rational Stage There was a new confidence emerging that

even though there was much that was not currently understood, it was only a matter of time before nature would reveal its mysterious workings as the interplay of a lawful reality discoverable through diligent research. This message is so powerful that it is still the driving force behind science today.

Philosophy

Frankfort: “The Greek philosophers held that the universe is an intelligible whole. In other words, they presumed that a single order underlies the chaos of our perceptions and, furthermore, that we are able to comprehend that order.” That is philosophy!

Changing Perspectives It will be important to note that the

transition from a mythological consciousness to a rational consciousness necessarily changes the way we view ethics.

Aristotle Aristotle wrote: “The

ultimate purpose in studying ethics is not as it is in other inquiries, the attainment of theoretical knowledge; we are not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it.”

Ethics and Morality Some people will separate ethics and

morality into two different definitions, ethics being secular in origin and morals being religious in origin. But that is more technical than necessary and these two words will be used interchangeably in this class.

Judith Boss Boss: “The use of the

word ethics reflects its etymology, which goes back to the Greek word ethos, meaning ‘cultural custom or habit.’ The word moral is derived from the Latin word moralis, which also means ‘custom’.”

What Is Ethics? Boss: “Philosophical ethics, also known as moral

philosophy, goes beyond this limited concept of right and wrong. Ethics, as a philosophical discipline, includes the study of the values and guidelines by which we live and the justification for these values and guidelines. Rather than simply accepting the customs or guidelines used by one particular group or culture, philosophical ethics analyzes and evaluates these guidelines in light of accepted universal principles and concerns.”

The Examined Life Socrates taught that the unexamined life

was not worth living. In other words, what makes humans unique, supposedly, is our ability to self-reflect, analyze, and adjust our behavior.

Practice Makes Perfect The important insight here about practice is

that if you want to be good you have to act good, whether you feel like it or not. By doing good acts, you eventually become a good person. You then do the right thing because you want to do so rather than under duress. A popular saying along these lines is that “you have to fake it until you can make it.”

Normative and Theoretical Boss: “Theoretical ethics, or metaethics,

studies why we should act and feel a certain way; normative ethics tells us how we should act in particular situations.”

Cognitive and Noncognitive Boss: “Noncognitive theories, such as

emotivism, claim that there are no moral truths and that moral statements are neither true nor false but simply expressions or outbursts of feelings. If moral statements are neither true nor false, there is no such thing as objective moral truths.”

Romanticism In philosophy there was a whole movement

called Romanticism that stressed the importance of feelings as being our surest way to understand the world.

Cognitive Theories Boss: “Cognitive theories can be further

subdivided into relativist and universalist theories. Relativist theories state that morality is different for different people. In contrast, universalist theories maintain that objective moral truths exist that are true for all humans, regardless of their personal beliefs or cultural norms.”

Cultural Relativity Cultural relativity is the belief that different

things are right for different groups of people at different times.

Relativist Theories Boss: “According to the relativist theories,

there are no independent moral values. Instead, morality is created by humans. Because morality is invented or created by humans, it can vary from time to time and from person to person.”

Ethical Subjectivism Boss: “Unlike reason, opinion (ethical

subjectivism) is based only on feeling rather than analysis or facts. In ethical subjectivism, there can be as many systems of morality as there are people in the world.”

Cultural Relativism Boss: “Cultural relativists, on the other

hand, argue that morality is created collectively by groups of humans and that it differs from society to society. Each society has its own moral norms, which are binding on the people who belong to the society. Each society also defines who is and who is not a member of the moral community.”

Divine Command Theory Boss: “A third type of relativist theory is

divine command theory. According to this theory, what is moral for each person or religion is relative to God. There are no universal moral principles that are binding on all people. Instead, there is no morality independent of God’s will, which may differ from person to person or from religion to religion.”

Inconsistency Boss: “Ethical subjectivism, cultural

relativism, and divine command theory are mutually exclusive theories. When theories are mutually exclusive, a person cannot consistently hold more than one of the theories to be true at the same time.”

No Choice Is A Choice! When it comes down to ethics, not choosing

what to think or how to act is a choice! You can’t really sit this one out, although this is exactly what some people think they can do. But when analyzed we see that all people come down on one side or another. But relativism is not your only choice.

Universalist Theories Boss: “Morality is discovered, rather than

created, by humans. In other words, the basic standards of right and wrong are derived from principles that exist independently of an individual’s or a society’s opinion.”

Universalist Theories People who believe in universal values believe that

something like slavery is wrong not, just where it is recognized as wrong and thus made illegal. It is wrong everywhere. This is an issue for those who are concerned about human rights. They believe that what they recognize as rights here in the United States (such as freedom of speech) should be recognized everywhere. Notice the word “should.” Should is a prescriptive word, that is, it tells us what we should do, and in that way it is related to ethical values.

A Simple Example In a law-abiding society we expect people to obey

the rules, such as stopping at red lights. If everyone disobeyed this we would have chaos and it would be very dangerous. But there are times, such as when rushing to a hospital in an emergency, when we expect people to be able to evaluate the good of obeying a law and the good of saving a life and see that saving a life is more important. When people become dogmatic they sometimes lose sight of this.

A Bigger Vision All theories are limited. The point of

studying many of them is that we see how when we pull all of them together we start to get a bigger vision of what it means to be a good person. We are able to include more perspectives, and that is usually a very good thing.

Critical Thinking Boss: “Rather than relying on public

opinion or what others say, it is up to each of us, as philosophers, to critically examine and analyze our reasons for holding particular views. In this way, the study of philosophy encourages us to become more autonomous.”

Self-Reliance The goal of a philosopher should be self-

realization or what Emerson called self-reliance. This is the ability to think for oneself and stand by your principles. If you can’t or won’t do that then you lose an essential aspect of your humanity and you become more like a machine than a person.

Question Your Perspective Boss: “By exposing the ignorance of those

who considered themselves wise, Socrates taught people to look at the social customs and laws in a new way. He taught them not to simply accept the prevailing views but to question their own views and those of their society in a never-ending search for truth and wisdom.”

Self-Realization Boss: “According to psychologist Abraham

Maslow, self-actualized people are autonomous. They do not depend on the opinions of others when deciding what to do and what to believe. Philosophers such as Socrates and Buddha exemplified what Maslow meant by a self-realized person.”

Good News The good news is that much of our exposure to all

of this “noise” is up to us. We have the ability to turn off the computer, turn off the T.V. and take some time to think for ourselves. But it does take some discipline to do this. It helps to have access to important ideas, such as philosophy (!), that help remind us that we are human beings who can ask the great questions and not simply seek to be entertained.

An Ongoing Process Boss: “Being honest involves the courage to

be different and to work hard at being the best one can be at whatever one does. People who are lacking in authenticity or sincerity blame others for their own unhappiness, giving in to what French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) called ‘the temptations of the easy way’.”

Cultural Conditioning Boss: “People who are self-actualized, in contrast,

are flexible and even welcome having their views challenged. Like true philosophers, they are open to new ways of looking at the world. They are willing to analyze and, if necessary, change their views - even if this means taking an unpopular stand. This process involves actively working to recognize and overcome the barriers to new ways of thinking; chief among these is cultural conditioning.”

Skepticism Boss: “Philosophers try to approach the world with

an open mind. They question their own beliefs and those of other people, no matter how obviously true a particular belief may seem. Rather than accepting established belief systems uncritically, philosophers first reflect on and analyze them. By refusing to accept beliefs until they can be justified, philosophers adopt an attitude of skepticism, or doubt, as their starting point.”

Cynicism Boss: “Cynicism is closed-minded and

mocks the possibility of truth; it begins and ends in doubt. Cynicism denies rather than analyzes. In this sense, cynicism is a means of resisting philosophical thought because it hinders analysis.”

Open, But Not Gullible Needleman: “We want to have open minds,

but not so open that our brains fall out!”

Avoiding Rigidity Boss: “However, if we believe that truth is

constantly revealing itself to us - whether through reason, experience, or intuition - in our quest for moral wisdom, we must always be open to dialogue with each other and with the world at large. If we think at some point that we have found truth and, therefore, close our minds, we have then ceased to think like a true philosopher. We will lose our sense of wonder and become rigid and self-righteous.”

Embracing The Quest Boss: “For a philosopher to stop seeking truth is

like a dancer freezing in one position because he thinks he has found the ultimate dance step or an artist stopping painting because she thinks she has created the perfect work of art. Similarly, to cease being open-minded and wondering is to cease thinking like a philosopher. To cease thinking like a philosopher is to give up the quest for the good life.”

Metaphysics Boss: “Ethical theories do not stand on their

own but are grounded in other philosophical presumptions about such matters as the role of humans in the universe, the existence of free will, and the nature of knowledge. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of the nature of reality, including what it means to be human.”

Free or Determined? For example: are humans free or

determined? Obviously we are limited and conditioned by some things, but are we entirely conditioned? How we answer that question has important implications for what it means to be a good person.

Abstract or Practical? People who think philosophy is too abstract

and has nothing to do with “the real world” have not studied ethics!

Metaphysical Dualism Boss: “According to metaphysical dualists,

reality is made up of two distinct and separate substances: the material or physical body and the nonmaterial mind, which is also referred to as the soul or spirit. The body, being material, is subject to causal laws. The mind, in contrast, has free will because it is nonmaterial and rational.”

The Problem Boss: “One of the main problems with

dualism is coming up with an explanation of how two apparently completely different substances - mind and body - are able to interact with each other, especially on a causal level. Because of the mind-body problem, many philosophers have rejected dualism.”

Metaphysical Materialism Boss: “There are many variations of

nondualistic or one-substance theories. One of the more popular one-substance theories is metaphysical materialism. In this worldview, physical matter is the only substance. Therefore, materialists do not have to deal with the mind-body problem.”

Sociobiology Boss: “Sociobiology is based on the

assumption of metaphysical materialism. As a branch of biology, sociobiology applies evolutionary theory to the social sciences - including questions of moral behavior. Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson claims that morality is based on biological requirements and drives.”

Biological Altruism Boss: “Biological altruism accounts for the

great sacrifices we are willing to make to help those who share our genes; however, sociobiologists do not equate natural with moral. Wilson writes that we as humans ‘must consciously choose among the alternative emotional guides we have inherited’.”

Problem Boss: “One of the problems with basing

ethics on metaphysical materialism is that it gives us no guidance in a situation where two rules, such as egoism and altruism, are in conflict. For this and other reasons, the majority of philosophers, without denying that biology is important, reject biology as the basis for morality.”

Hope Thankfully, if you don’t want to be a dualist

you are not yet limited to being a materialist. There are other choices!

Unity Of All Reality Boss: “Buddha rejected metaphysical dualism,

emphasizing the unity of all reality rather than differences. According to Buddha, the natural order is not rigidly hierarchical; rather, it is a dynamic web of interactions that condition or influence, instead of determining, our actions. Mind and body are not separate substances but are a manifestation of one substance that is referred to in most Buddhist philosophies as the ‘One.’”

A Metaphor All of the diverse reality that we see around

us shares in the same basic atomic structure. You break humans, trees, and rocks down to their smallest level and you find atoms. And what are atoms except energy? Energy, then, seems like the modern way of understanding this “one” reality that can then manifest as either physical reality or consciousness, that elusive “mind-stuff.”

Another View of Unity Boss: “Some Native American philosophies also

stress the interrelatedness of all beings; they do not divide the world into animate and inanimate objects but rather they see everything, including the earth itself, as having a self-conscious life. This metaphysical view of reality is reflected in a moral philosophy based on respect for all beings and on not taking more than one needs.”

Circles Of Concern We live in a time when this circle of concern

seems to be expanding to include the whole world and even other species. Thankfully this is happening just in time as if we continued down the road of only caring about ourselves we would probably end up destroying our planet. As a result there is a whole new field of ethical concern scholars are addressing that has to do with ecological ethics.

Determinism Boss: “The theory of determinism states that all

events are governed by causal laws. There is no free will. Humans are governed by causal laws just as all other physical objects and beings are. According to strict determinism, if we had complete knowledge, we could predict future events with 100 percent certainty. The emphasis on the scientific method as the source of truth has contributed to the trend in the West to describe human behavior in purely scientific terms.”

Determinism Boss: “Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-

1939) claimed that humans are governed by powerful unconscious forces and that even our most noble accomplishments are the result of prior events and instincts. Behaviorists such as John Watson (1878-1958) and B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) also believed that human behavior is determined by past events in our lives.”

Condemned to Freedom? Boss: “According to [existentialist philosophers],

we are defined only by our freedom. Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) argued that ‘there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it…Man [therefore] is condemned to be free.’ He argued that, as radically free beings, we each have the responsibility to create our own essence, including choosing the moral principles upon which we act.”

Karma Karma claims we are responsible for our

choices and this implies freedom. The resistance to determinism stems from the fact that if we don’t take responsibility for our actions then we end up making up excuses for our behavior.

Excuses Our laws have often recognized different

levels of responsibility. Just think of the difference between first-degree murder and manslaughter. The question in an ethics course is can we extend different levels of responsibility all the way to no responsibility?

Freedom as Possibility Freedom seems to be more of a possibility

than a given fact. Freedom is a human potential. We grow up conditioned, but we can expand our horizons and find more freedom.

Moral Knowledge How do we know what is good? Some things

seem obvious, but other things are not so clear. We may even have people in our lives who are intelligent and thoughtful and whom we respect who come down on opposite sides regarding moral issues. Does this lack of agreement mean there is no moral truth? This will be another of the important questions we will be engaging throughout this course.

Mental Health When we think about moral knowledge, we

must keep in mind that one of the main ways we gauge mental health is whether these basic insights and intuitions are present or not. Disagreements may abound, but that is not the same thing as saying there is no possibility of moral knowledge at all. That is too extreme a view. One might even argue that it is a dangerous view.

Epistemology Boss: “The branch of philosophy concerned

with the study of knowledge - including moral knowledge - is known as epistemology. Epistemology deals with questions about the nature and limits of knowledge and how knowledge can be validated. There are many ways of knowing. Intuition, reason, feeling, and experience are all potential sources of knowledge.”

The Power of Rationality There is no argument that reason is of

critical importance. In fact, we can hope that more people become more rational as soon as possible! We need good, clear, critical thinkers to tackle the problems of the modern world. Nevertheless, all of the disagreements between very smart people should help us be cautious about giving reason and rationality too much power.

Intuition Boss: “Intuition is immediate or self-evident

knowledge, as opposed to knowledge inferred from other truths. Intuitive truths do not need any proof. Utilitarians, for example, claim that we intuitively know that pain is a moral evil. Confucians maintain that we intuitively know that benevolence is good. Rights ethicists claim that we intuitively know that all people are created equal.”

Developmental Psychology Boss: “Cognitive-developmental psychologist

Lawrence Kohlberg believes that certain morally relevant concepts, such as altruism and cooperation, are built into us (or at least almost all of us). According to Kohlberg, these intuitive notions are part of humans’ fundamental structure for interpreting the social world, and as such, they may not be fully articulated. In other words, we may know what is right but not be able to explain why it is right.”

Self-Evident? We don’t exist alone in the world. We must

live with others and when we disagree we must have a way of discussing the issues. Therefore we need a way of approaching moral knowledge that allows this dialogue to take place.

Religious Language? A person might say they believe that something is

wrong because the Bible says so. But this will only hold validity for other people who believe that the Bible is a valid source of insight. What if you are trying to convince someone who does not believe this? Then you can’t appeal to something like the Bible that you don’t hold in common, but something you do hold in common such as reason and feelings.

Experience Boss: “Aristotle emphasized reason as the

most important source of moral knowledge, yet he also taught that ethics education needs an experiential component to lead to genuine knowledge. Some philosophers carry the experiential component of moral knowledge even further. Empiricism claims that all, or at least most, human knowledge comes through the five senses.”

Positivism Boss: “Positivists believe that moral

judgments are simply expressions of individuals’ emotions; this is known as emotivism. Because statements of moral judgment don’t seem to convey any information about the physical world, they are meaningless.”

Feelings Morality is not something that can be

proved through reason at all. Rather it comes from our feelings, which because they are subjective do not approach the objectivity that is often sought for in scientific circles.

Too Subjective? The problem is that feelings are too subjective. Is

something right only because it feels right to me? If this is true then how do we have a nation, let alone a world, of laws that we can hold people accountable to? What if they disagree? How can we tell someone that their cruel treatment of children or animals is wrong if there is no objective standard? These are some of the difficult problems we have to face with ethical theories such as emotivism and positivism.

Emotions Have A Role While it may not suffice to undergird ethics

entirely, we will see that emotions still play a critical role in our discernment of what is right and what is wrong.

Exposure To Suffering Many of us start to build a social consciousness

when we are required by our families and schools to do community service work. This exposes us to suffering and problems and we start to care and want to do something to eliminate some of the pain people experience. This has an enormous impact on our ethical life. Reading about poverty is a very different experience from actually seeing it for yourself.