Transcript Post on dualism & ethics - People at Creighton University

Post on dualism & ethics
 Stephen G. Post. “A Moral Case for Nonreductive
Physicalism.” In Warren Brown, Nancey Murphy, &
H. Newton Maloney, ed. Whatever Happened to
the Soul? Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
 Thesis: Christian morality is compatible
with nonreductive physicalism.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 1
Post on dualism & ethics
 Dualism appears to have some distinctive
moral advantages
– Notion of soul bestows “equal moral
worth on all humans” (196).
• Persons who are severely mentally
handicapped and those with
Alzheimer’s are still fully human
because they have a soul. Accordingly
they are worthy of full human dignity
(197). Post on dualism & ethics - slide 2
Post on dualism & ethics
• Wolf Wolfensberger, uses this type
of argument. He blames the
mistreatment of the mentally
retarded on “materialism” &
“reductionistic” views of human
nature.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 3
Post on dualism & ethics
– But historically the connection between
soul and moral worth is not always
present.
• Plato was a strong dualist; yet in the
Republic he sanctioned infanticide for
the sake of his eugenics program.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 4
Post on dualism & ethics
 Dualism also has moral disadvantages
– Slavery
• Plato likened the body to a slave; the
soul is the master.
• He argued that just as the soul ought
to have total dominion over the body,
so should the master have dominion
over the slave.
• This is the natural “order of being.”
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 5
Post on dualism & ethics
– Denial of pleasure
• Lisa Sowle Cahill argues that dualism
is linked to the denial of pleasure and
intimacy as values in married love.
• She traces this back to Augustine’s
Neoplatonism--the body is a
hindrance to the spiritual
contemplation of God.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 6
Post on dualism & ethics
– Patriarchy
• Cahil also argues that soul-body
dualism became intertwined with the
patriarchal dualism of man over
woman.
• Men were identified with the rational
while women were identified with
body, earthiness, and irrationality
(206).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 7
Post on dualism & ethics
– The alternative: a monistic view of
human nature
• Do monistic views of human nature
threaten moral inclusivity (including
all humans--women, children, the
handicapped--as deserving respect &
dignity) and traditional Christian
ethics?
• Post answers no.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 8
Post on dualism & ethics
• Christianity contains within itself
other resources for defending moral
inclusivity
• These other resources
– The common Christian narrative
that bids us to love even the most
devastated and imperiled neighbor
(210).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 9
Post on dualism & ethics
– The Christian notion that each
human person is a child of God &
the recipient of God’s love and
grace.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 10
Post on dualism & ethics
– The notion of agape.
»A “love of bestowal”-- a person
is loved simply because she or he
is loved by God. Cf. a”appraisive
love” — a person is loved
because of certain attractive
qualities (212).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 11
Post on dualism & ethics
 A comment on Post’s essay
– The difference between traditional
notion of soul and the appeal to agape &
the imitation of Christ is that the
traditional position provides a
metaphysical basis for morality; the
appeal to agape & imitation does not.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 12
Post on dualism & ethics
– And the traditional position provides a
basis for moral inclusivity which can
appeal to persons of different religions;
the ethic of agape and imitation will not
have any force to those who are not
Christian.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 13