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<font face="Times New Roman, Times">Dear Melynda:<br><br>
Thanks for your critique of the Virtues Project. In our committee
work cleanliness and assertiveness have already been targeted for
discussion, and I hope that we decide to focus on the cardinal moral
virtues. <br><br>
Linda and Dan Popov have done a great job of reaching a very wide
audience, but a virtue a week is spreading the virtues very thin. I
will propose that we focus on the universal virtues of fidelity, loyalty,
integrity, compassion, justice, courage, benevolence, friendship,
perseverance, and nonviolence.<br><br>
I disagree with you that common sense is culturally constructed. (I
direct you to the best article on this subject: Martha Nussbaum,
Non-Relative Virtues in <i>Midwest Studies in Philosophy</i> [Notre
Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1988], vol. 13.) Yours is a
deconstructive postmodernism of the French variety that throws the wisdom
baby out with the philosophical bath water.<br><br>
The Sunday sermon at the UU Church refreshed my memory of the Schwartz
Values Types. He or his associates have taken surveys in every
corner of the world and has come up with a Circle of Values that even the
far right and far left, Eskimos and Chinese, can enter for discussion, if
they will just choose to. <br><br>
I prefer virtue talk to value talk, because the virtues are more concrete
and personal. I believe the ancients were correct that most virtues
are means between extremes. It is always wrong to eat too much, but
each and every one of us will find a personal mean between the anorexic
deficit and the gluttonous extreme. If people ignore objective
factors--such as temperament, body size, metabolism, and other
physiological factors--then their bodies, sooner or later, will tell them
that they are out of their respective means. This is one way to
show that the virtues are relative but still normative.<br><br>
There are certainly cultural variations in the virtues and the virtue of
tolerance will allow us to accept those variations and even the minor
vices. (Hundreds of millions of Indians have a very good time
without ever touching a drop of alcohol, so our moderate drinking is
shocking to them.) As I have said in a previous post, there can be
a wide variety of emphasis in the virtues under the umbrella of the
Declaration of Human Rights. <br><br>
I’m always a little dense, so perhaps you could tell me how the fables
you chose from Aesop actually advances your argument. Instead
of Aesop I would choose a collection of stories each of which embodies
one of cardinal virtues. I’ve forgiven Bill Bennett for his little
vice of gambling, so I would recommend his <i>Book of Virtues</i> as long
as it is supplemented with similar stories from Asia and
Africa.<br><br>
For selections from my book <i>The Virtue of Non-Violence</i> see
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/vnv.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/vnv.htm</a>.<br><br>
Yours for world of virtues,<br><br>
Nick Gier<br>
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<font size=2>"The god you worship is the god you
deserve."<br>
~~ Joseph Campbell<br>
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