The most important issue comes down to the central question of human life: what is a life worth living? To me this is an inescapably individual question the answer to which changes moment by moment in a richly diverse world. To assume there is a single answer to “moral rightness” is to assume a frozen moment in an ever-evolving universe from the perspective of a single sentient person! We struggle even for ourselves from one instant to the next to determine what is right for this particular moment! Even reducing world events to an innocuous question like a choice between coffee and tea would foment an endless struggle to determine what is “right” morally. There doesn’t have to be a dire life-and-death choice to present moral difficulty. Who do you try to please and who gets to decide?
We seem to imagine that morality is like literacy in that it’s provided by mere information. I disagree; I suggest it’s the result of a lot of experience, most particularly failures and sufferings (and the more, the better). It’s only by percolating thousands of such experiences through the active human heart that we develop a sense of wise morality. It cannot be programmed. Otherwise we would just send our kids to school and they would all emerge as saints. But we see that they tend to emerge as creatures responsive to the particular family environment from which they came. Those who were raised in an atmosphere of love often grow to become compassionate and concerned adults. Those who were abused and ignored as kids often turn out to be morally bereft adults.
In a rich and changing world it is virtually meaningless to even talk about identifying an overall moral “goodness”, much as I wish it were possible and that those who are in power would actually choose that value over a narrowly self-serving alternative. It’s a good discussion, but let’s not fool ourselves that as a species we are mature enough to proceed to implement these ideas.
What do you think was the most important issue raised in this section?
The most important issue comes down to the central question of human life: what is a life worth living? To me this is an inescapably individual question the answer to which changes moment by moment in a richly diverse world. To assume there is a single answer to “moral rightness” is to assume a frozen moment in an ever-evolving universe from the perspective of a single sentient person! We struggle even for ourselves from one instant to the next to determine what is right for this particular moment! Even reducing world events to an innocuous question like a choice between coffee and tea would foment an endless struggle to determine what is “right” morally. There doesn’t have to be a dire life-and-death choice to present moral difficulty. Who do you try to please and who gets to decide?
We seem to imagine that morality is like literacy in that it’s provided by mere information. I disagree; I suggest it’s the result of a lot of experience, most particularly failures and sufferings (and the more, the better). It’s only by percolating thousands of such experiences through the active human heart that we develop a sense of wise morality. It cannot be programmed. Otherwise we would just send our kids to school and they would all emerge as saints. But we see that they tend to emerge as creatures responsive to the particular family environment from which they came. Those who were raised in an atmosphere of love often grow to become compassionate and concerned adults. Those who were abused and ignored as kids often turn out to be morally bereft adults.
In a rich and changing world it is virtually meaningless to even talk about identifying an overall moral “goodness”, much as I wish it were possible and that those who are in power would actually choose that value over a narrowly self-serving alternative. It’s a good discussion, but let’s not fool ourselves that as a species we are mature enough to proceed to implement these ideas.