[Vision2020] virtues come first

[Art Deco]

All,

Melynda has pointed out by example what many on this list probably already know.

Anyone who has taken an general ethics course taught by the philosophy department in any secular university knows that there are many different ethical systems.

Each of these systems has its own general basis for justifying its ethical proscriptions.  The ethical proscriptions from one system frequently are inconsistent with those of other systems.  Some systems have insurmountable problems because of clear logical inconsistency.  Some systems are based entirely on what, in effect, is superstition and ignorance.  Some are based, in part, on knowledge acquired through the application of observation and logic.

There is no accepted way known currently that allows tests/verification/etc to determine which ethical system is the "true one".  The fundamental axioms (fundamental "oughts") of ethical systems have yet to be proven, although in particular cultures those axioms can have assignable probabilities.  Hence at present, many ethical systems are thus heuristically based.  There is no (or very little controversy) about what the gravitational constant in Moscow, Idaho is.  There is a great deal of irresolvable controversy about the application of the death penalty with no accepted method to determine the correct answer.

This status does not mean that we should not stop observing, testing, theorizing, etc.  What it does mean is that we ought be careful when spending public money promoting a particular ethical system, and especially if its basis is superstition and ignorance, rather than making predominantly testable/verifiable claims.

Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Melynda Huskey" <melyndahuskey at earthlink.net>
To: "lfalen" <lfalen at turbonet.com>; <mushroom at moscow.com>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 1:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] virtues come first


>L Falen writes:
> 
> "A good place to start is Aesopes Fables."
> 
> Here are four fables from Laura Gibbs' 2002 translation of Aesop, http://www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/index.htm
> which suggest that finding common values might be just a little trickier than one might initially think:
> 
> "The Galli, those priests of the goddess Cybebe, used a donkey to carry their luggage when they went around begging for alms. When their donkey finally died, overcome by work and the whip, they stripped his hide and made themselves some tambourines. When someone asked them what they had done with their darling donkey, the priests replied, 'He thought that once he died he would get some rest, but he keeps on getting beaten just the same!'  It is not enough that a man who is born under an unlucky star leads an unhappy life: the bitter affliction of his fate pursues him even after he is dead.
> 
> "There was a hooligan who struck Aesop with a stone. Aesop said, 'Well done!' and he even gave the boy a coin. Then he added, 'Confound it, that's all the cash I've got, but I'll show you more where that came from. Look, the man coming this way is a wealthy and important person; if you can hit him with a stone the same way you hit me, you'll get the reward you deserve.' The hooligan was convinced and did as Aesop told him, but his hope for a reward brought his reckless daring to ruin: he was arrested and paid the price for his crime on the cross. 
> 
> "A man caught a jackdaw and tied the bird's foot with a piece of string so that he could give the bird to his children as a present. The jackdaw, however, could not stand to live in human society, so when they let him loose for just a moment, he ran away. But when he got back to his nest, the string became entangled in the branches, so that the jackdaw was unable to fly. As he was dying, the bird said to himself, 'How stupid of me! Since I could not stand being a slave in human society, I have brought about my own death.'
> 
> Values--and virtues--are not universal.  Common sense is culturally defined.  A very simple abstraction, such as "Everybody should be honest," quickly founders under the pressures of defining honesty in specific cases.  Moreover, as we can surely admit to ourselves, if not to the world at large, a strong working definition of honesty doesn't always translate into honest behavior. 
> 
> Melynda Huskey
> 
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