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Philosophy in Fall:
What is Morality?
Feraco-Eberle
SFHP
6 November 2008
The Question Series
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What is Choice? – √
What is Morality?
What is Happiness?
What is the Soul?
What is Death?
What is the Meaning of Life?
My Philosophy (Rough Draft + Final Draft)
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What is Morality?
Morality as a Function of
Free Will: The Final Battle
What is “Good”? –
Evaluative Language
Ethics and Morals
Are You Living the Good
Life? Are You Living a Good
Life?
All Things Are Possible: The
Doors Morals Open, The
Doors Morals Shut
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…and Much More!
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Morality as a Function
of Free Will
What happens to morality if you’re entirely responsible for your
actions and their consequences?
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Good things, we hope!
What happens to morality if something interrupts your ability to
control your actions as well? (Are you still responsible?)
Let’s assume – for today – that you have free will.
If you have free will, you have the ability to choose your actions –
which, in turn, means you’re responsible for their consequences.
Therefore, you have a choice regarding whether you’ll lead a
“moral” life.
Is that power – to live “morally” – even worth anything?
Why Bother Trying to
Live a Moral Life?
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First, let’s look at why it might be important to live “well”
Is there any reason to try? Do morals and ethics hold us back, restricting our
vision rather than opening our minds?
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Possibly, but not necessarily…
Ethics, for instance, reinforce your desire to achieve personal excellence by providing
you with a framework for it. Because of that framework, you can make sense of the
things you come across and are able to make a consistent, understandable decision.
Your hopes and dreams are therefore shaped by your ethical and moral codes.
Even morality doesn’t have to be restrictive; rather, it’s about trying to study the
“best” way to live life
If you take the time to understand your beliefs, you’ll be able to grow rather
than simply survive; ethics and morals give us a basis for survival that goes
beyond perpetuation, providing us with direction we would otherwise lack.
(That direction shapes more than your career goals; how many friendships, for
example, would you lose if you only made relationships based on who could
help you survive?)
Finding a Consensus
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The ability to choose to live well is essentially the ability to choose
insight over ignorance – to elevate the possibilities of a rich, varied
lifestyle above the routines of a thoughtless, bland, and
unexamined life.
If I decide I want to live well, how do I go about doing so? It seems
like an awful lot of people have a lot of ideas about how to do
things, about how to live righteously, about how to be
happy...how do I choose?
It helps to define ethics and morality before we do anything else –
because goodness is, of course relative, and my impression of
living well could be entirely off-base.
Morals and Ethics
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Generally speaking, ethics are codes that govern your
professional conduct – the beliefs that determine my
teaching style, for example
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Do different teachers have different ethical standards?
Morals, on the other hand, are codes that govern your
private behavior – whether you choose to help
someone, wear something, relate to someone,
abandon something, etc.
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Some Loaded Questions –
Write in Response!
Can morals be constructed by each person on an individual basis? (Write!)
Should they be? Is there any good that comes from being able to disagree with
one another? (Think of all the fighting that we’ve engaged in…is this choice
really one we want?) (Write!)
How about ethics? If you’re not allowed to construct them yourself, is that a
threat to free will?
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I suppose, if your subscription to those principles is voluntary – a choice –you could
choose to buy in and change your mind later...what would the consequences be,
however, if you chose to break from society’s ethical or moral codes?
If you are able to shape the concept of whatever qualifies as “good” yourself,
does “goodness” lose all real value?
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You, for example, may believe Death Cab for Cutie is awful; I may believe they’re
excellent. If we’re listening to the same music at the same time, doesn’t that just
invalidate the value of both our reactions? (What about our rule of logic – the one
that says Kimberly can’t fail and pass at the same time? How can Death Cab be both
awful and wonderful at the same time?)
Isn’t it like allowing people to call “steak” whatever they feel like – “ice cream,”
“aples,” etc. – which then robs the word of its meaning?
Why shouldn’t we have a standardized system of goodness that everyone has to
agree with? (Discuss!)
One at a Time
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Can I choose my own moral and ethical codes? Sure – the construction of those codes
plays a huge role in determining any person’s sense of identity.
Should I do so? Well, why not? Sure, there will be differences – but I need those to grow.
(“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”)
it’s hard to subscribe exclusively to someone else’s ethical beliefs. That said, my ethical
and moral codes can resemble someone else’s, and as long as my codes meet certain
societal criteria (don’t throw things while teaching, etc.), I’ll probably be fine.
 (This doesn’t quite answer the question, but you’ll be answering it yourself in due
time.)
Now morals, on the other hand, often end up becoming legal issues. If you don’t find the
taking of human life immoral, you’ll be staring across a wide ethical gulf from virtually
everyone you already know.
Can we be trusted to shape these things ourselves? Do we need guides – bodhisattvas,
even – to help bring out our better angels? Can we figure out what is “good” by
ourselves?
Goodness Gracious
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Does “goodness” lose its value if its meaning can be changed
by anyone? Don’t we need “universal good” in order to provide
our morals with a foundation?
Well, morals aren’t written in stone (usually!), and our codes of
professional and personal conduct don’t always align with
codes from our parents’ generation
Still, the concept of “good” as this nebulous, free-floating idea
has inspired millions of debates over the centuries; it irritates
those who want a definite answer, and intrigues those who are
curious about the possibilities of the open-ended concept
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Goodness Gracious, Part II
When we say something is “good,” what do we really mean?
Does the use of “good” in “‘One Tree Hill’ is so good!” match the use of “good” in
“Kindness is good for the soul”?
In some cases, we seem to be stating a fact about our opinions – when we say “One
Tree Hill” is good, we’re expressing an opinion in favor of the show with the
expectation that others will agree or be interested.
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You can disagree with my opinion, but you cannot disagree with the factual nature of what
I said – because I made a factual statement about my opinion. (Tricky!)
In other cases, we seem to be stating a fact about something – “kindness is good,”
for example.
We call this evaluative objectivism, which stems from evaluative language.
Evaluative language assigns a “quality label” to something – this is good, that’s bad,
this is right, that’s wrong – and there are different schools of thought relating to our
uses of such language.
Is there a “universal bad” or “universal good”? An evaluative objectivist would
answer in the affirmative, while his opponent - an evaluative skeptic - would disagree.
Goodness Gracious, Part III
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If you’re an evaluative skeptic, you tend to think that there are
shades of grey in everything – that is, that good and evil are
relative concepts rather than moral absolutes.
There are ways to deal with the skeptical thinker, just as there are
ways to deal with the objectivist thinker.
The point, however, is that our very understanding of that single
four-letter word – “good” – has a tremendous impact on how we
see the world – and, therefore, on how we make moral and
ethical decisions.
(Again, we’re operating under the assumption that choice exists!)
Are We Really Happy With Who We
Are Right Now?
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When I ask a simple question, then – “Are you living a good life?” – I know
that a bunch of different responses are popping up around the classroom.
How? Because you each have your own interpretation of goodness, and you
assign your own value/weight to goodness as well (is virtue the most
important part of life, or is it completely arbitrary?).
So I’ll ask a simple question, twice – with one word changed – in a way that
will invite further discussion.
The first question: “Are you living the ‘good life’?” (Write!)
The second: “Are you living a good life?” (Write!)
Obvious follow-up question: “Well, what defines ‘the’ good life? What
defines ‘a’ good life?”
You do. Write away!
The Doors We Open, The Doors We Shut
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The last major topic of discussion today is the role of influence
of morals on your daily lives. (Questions connecting to
questions!)
Do you feel that your own sense of morality – regardless of
whether it is valid – limits or frees you? (You can say “both” if
you’re going to explain yourself.) In what ways does it affect
you – and are you comfortable with those effects? (Write!)
Think about this for a while so we can discuss the topic in
greater detail.
The Writing Assignment
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Yesterday, you discussed choice.
Today, I’d like you to articulate your personal
philosophy regarding ethics and morality.
Remember, this is an ongoing assignment with an
open timeframe; at the end of the unit, the body
of these writings will allow you to form your
personal statement of philosophy – the unit’s
“end product.”
You may work on this until the end of the period.