Prof, first and foremost, I'd like to say that I love your tenacity in truthfully trying to enlighten the ignorant, to the world of philosophical thought as it pertains to ethics. You are a man after my own heart. But the truth of the matter is that life, as others have tried to point out, makes it only good on paper. And Indeed it is!!! Unfortunately the current state of affairs is such that there is much forced inequality amongst men, due to fear and ignorance, such that your paper hasn't much of a chance to do much good. Sure the already enlightened, of relative degree, shall read and see the beauty of your attempt, and it is. And I beg you to not take to heart, the words of the fearful ignorant, as they know not what they do!prof wrote:In the following discussion the letter E will stand for: Ethicist – by which is meant ‘a teacher of Ethics’ – perhaps a professional who gets paid to teach it; or a researcher in the field. And the letter L will symbolize ‘a philosophical layman.’
E: Do you mind if I talk theory for a moment?
L: No, go ahead.
E: You’ve heard the expression “to live a moral life.” What do you suppose it means? What does it mean to live a moral life?
L: I dunno. You tell me.
E: It means Be true to yourself. Shakespeare, in the year 1510, knew the truth of this. He said: To thine own self be true… Yet how does one be true?
By having some good principles; and living up to them ! Okay?
L: Okay. I'll go with that.
E: Logically, the question then arises: What makes a principle a good one? How can we tell what a good moral principle is?
L: How?
E: Good question! You have a healthy curiosity!! What makes a principle a good one? Well, it’s richer in values than other principles and it fulfills its purpose. So you might ask: What’s the purpose of a principle? And I would answer: A good set of principles helps us live harmoniously with other people – both in our family and in society. It enables us to avoid quarrels even before they start. It shows us how to get along with other members of our human species; how to have sweeter cooperation to solve our problems. Can we agree that a principle that does that is “a good” one?
L: Yeah. I guess so. You're telling me that to live a moral life we need to have some high principles and put them into practice.
E: Exactly !! You get it. That's what I mean if I use the term "morality." Earlier I mentioned the feature “richer in value” when we were discussing how to tell the difference among principles. That’s how we tell something is better: it has more qualities than what you are comparing it with, doesn’t it? A good moral principle would have everything a moral principle should have. …It would put people first – over things and stuff. And it would give a higher priority to things and material than it would give to numbers and passing thoughts of the mind. Good principles show us which way is “up.” They help us get our priorities straight. Okay?
L: Yes.
E: You're right. Once we have a good set of moral principles we know that all the systems and ideologies in the world aren't worth one material thing; and all the things in the world aren't worth one human life !
Any questions? Do you see why we should care about living a moral life? How do you feel about all this? -- I’m listening…..
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E: So let's go beyond theory now, and I'll ask you a practical question:
Do you want a better quality of life than you have now? ...Here's one way to get it ...
As Pete Demerest, a wise man, once told us: ""Beyond survival, the goal is to thrive – to go beyond just staying alive and to increase quality of life. Since your brain is already wired to think in terms of creating value, you've already got what it takes. All you need are the keys to help you take full advantage of how your brain naturally works so you make better decisions and take more effective actions more often." I have to agree with him. He's right.
And I would add this: If we can master our mind, perhaps we can think, learn, and act in new and better ways.
We know, in our hearts, that we can't truly maximize the quality of our own lives unless we maximize the quality of other people's lives as well. From this perspective, quality of life -- and life itself -- is not just about 'my own narrow self'; it’s about all of us. Life is fundamentally about creating value and our conscience knows it! So let's figure out how to create more and better value! And let's put policies into effect that do that! What do you think?
Comments? Critiques? Concepts? Suggestions?
Once we can get rid of mans greed, humanity shall be ready for your paper. Right now the human is just too much animal, not capable of understanding the truthful whys and hows of itself, let alone the brilliance and truth of such thoughts you've put down on paper.
Thanks for being you, the glimmer of hope that you are, as well as all that are like you!
Edit: typo
for you.