TEST POST

TESTTESTTEST

Moral Imagination

When I first saw the phrase "Moral Imagination" I immediately thought of "morality as externalization of internal values" (I have been reading too much Schopenhauer!), but now see that it refers to the psychology of value judgements.

The "moral hypocrisy" found by Batson et all was not surprising to me; everything we do is for our own benefit, even the supposedly selfless acts. From an evolutionary standpoint, the individual need only appear moral to reap the karmic benefits of a moral life. If he/she can operate under such a guise while secretly fulfilling every desire, then there is great potential for personal power. Authority figures seem to necessarily operate according to this (though possibly not as malignantly as I have described).

Though it wasn't mentioned in the Pardale article, how would "Archetype" work differently from stereotype and prototype? Intuitively, I would say it is something like prototype... I feel a Google search coming!

I am interested in the relationship between the technological deficit and constraint in education. Is it static or dynamic? I understand the deficit, but what is the nature of the constraint? Also, I find the "taboo" of formal emotional education strange, since we do it incessently, though informally.

Doubt11-12

There were many new themes that I noticed the second time through that I glazed over before, specifically the basketball analogy and the emphasis on Flynn’s fingernails. I’m still not quite sure what to think of them… but I know there is something important here. Another thing I noticed was the juxtaposition between Aloysius and James: both have great faith in their convictions, such that neither can come to terms that the other may be right. Since I already knew the plot and the events, I could concentrate more on the symbolism contained within each event, each word. Like Schopenhauer said, “all books should be read twice”, the first time to get the “general idea”, and the next to “find the truth contained within”.

Doubt 11-10

I found it extremely difficult to sympathize with any of the characters; Sister Aloysius and Mrs. Muller both seemed out of their minds, Sister James is too naïve, and based on the available evidence, I cannot make a accurate judgment on Father Flynn. He is very charismatic and likeable, yet these are two essential characteristics of a good liar!

I very much admire Sister James. I wish I could be so optimistic about people, I too often fall into a nihilistic pessimism!

With Aloysius and Flynn we have a very interesting difference in approach to leadership. Aloysius is a strict, detached disciplinarian, while Flynn is a compassionate mentor, but both wish (or seem to wish) for what is best for the child. Flynn’s apparent compassion may stem from something sinister, but it could just as likely be genuine. Aloysius seems very fake to me… as if her convictions are nothing but a front for deep-seeded doubt and uncertainty. I am always very suspicious of someone with such certainty, I would much rather admit ignorance than claim certain truth or falsehood.

Promise-Keeping

Maybe I’m reading the prompt wrong but isn’t the keeping of promises an obligation rather than a right? A right is something which insulates and protects an individual from the greater whole, while an obligation is a compromise of free-will within the community such that the societal structure may operate more efficiently, and as a byproduct, the individual will also benefit. The obligation of promise-keeping (including those promises which are subconscious) allows for not only larger and greater communities, but also the emergence of an economy. As technology advances and the division of labor becomes more pronounced, the obligation of promise-keeping becomes even more important.

It is therefore not our right to keep our promises but an obligation. However, it logically follows that the promisee has the right to seek retribution on a promiser who did not hold his/her end of the bargain. This retribution may not be physical but would mostly be social, in that the false promiser would gain a reputation for his dishonestly and be either exiled or subsumed back into the whole through conformity of societal norms.

I don’t think mankind ever made a “choice” to keep its promises, but it is rather inherent and requisite within our family dynamics, and is extended to the rest of the tribe who would be generally thought of as an extended family.

Mill 10/24

"Questions of ultimate ends are not amenable to direct proof" (184)

I wholeheartedly agree with Mill! Questions of morality are impossible to answer with the typical reference to either science or logic, we must instead rely on anthropological and sociological observations and tendencies, which Mill alludes to:

"Whatever can be proved to be good, must be so by being shown to be a means to something admitted to be good without proof." (184)

What Mill is saying is that we can only make moral conclusions based on a set of basic assumptions, which is how he goes about disproving earlier moralists. While this is fine in theory, you are making another assumption about your assumptions, namely that your assumptions are correct and everyone else is wrong.

Prep for Mill

If a particular action or an object produces pleasure while another produces pain, and the former is considered good and the latter bad, we should structure our lives such that we aim to maximize pleasure and minimize pain for the greatest amount of people in the community. Of course, too much of a good thing can cause pain, such as excessive eating, so excess must be necessarily avoided. The question is this: should the individual maintain a minimalist lifestyle so that he/she may donate to the greater pleasure of society? Or should the ascetic be shunned in favor of he who concentrates his most productive activities on himself and his closest friends? The answer is most obviously "somewhere in the middle", but that "somewhere" will be different for each individual, but those who fall at the ends of the continuum are significantly less helpful to the community that those closer to the middle.