1. Shifting Gears #2: The Good Left Undone Feraco Myth to Science Fiction 13 April 2010

2. What is Morality?  Morality as a Function of Free Will (Reviewed)  What is “Good”?: Evaluative Language  Ethics and Morals  The Good Life?  All Things Are Possible: The Doors Morals Open, The Doors Morals Shut

3. Morality as a Function of Choice  What happens to morality if you’re entirely responsible for your actions and their consequences?  Good things, we hope!  What happens to morality if something interrupts your ability to control your actions as well?  Are you still responsible?  Sanity and culpability

4. For Today…  Let’s assume – for today – that you have free will  If you have free will, you have the ability to choose your actions – which, in turn, means you’re responsible for their consequences  Therefore, you have a choice regarding whether you’ll lead a “moral” life  But is that power – to live “morally” – worth anything?

5. Why Bother Living a “Moral Life”?  First, let’s look at why it might be important to live “well”  Is there any reason to try to do so?  Do morals and ethics hold us back, restricting our vision rather than opening our minds?  Possibly, but not necessarily…

6. Ethics vs. Morals  Generally speaking, ethics are codes that govern your professional conduct – the beliefs that determine my teaching style, for example  Do different teachers have different ethical standards?  Morals, on the other hand, are codes that govern your private behavior – whether you choose to help someone, wear something, relate to someone, abandon something, etc.

7. Some Big Questions  Should morals be constructed by each person on an individual basis?  How about ethics?  If you’re not allowed to construct them yourself, is that a threat to free will?  I suppose, if your subscription to those principles is voluntary – a choice – you could choose to buy in and change your mind later...what would the consequences be, however, if you chose to break from society’s ethical or moral codes?

8. The Big One  If you are able to shape the concept of whatever qualifies as “good” yourself, does “goodness” lose all real value?  You, for example, may believe Death Cab for Cutie is awful; I may believe they’re excellent  If we’re listening to the same music at the same time, doesn’t that just invalidate the value of both our reactions?  Isn’t it like allowing people to call “steak” whatever they feel like – “ice cream,” “slab o’ meat,” etc. – without providing help on what to call it and where you should do so?  Does that make everything arbitrary?  Similarly, isn’t that like allowing you to choose your own grading scale – your own “standard for success”?  Would that be a bad thing?

9. Possibilities and Frameworks  Morals and ethics reinforce your desire to achieve personal excellence by providing you with a framework for it  Because of that framework, you can make sense of the things you come across and are able to make a consistent, understandable decision  Your hopes and dreams are therefore shaped by your ethical and moral codes  Is that framework helpful, or does it serve as a prison?

10. Why You Live a “Moral Life”  Even morality doesn’t have to be restrictive; rather, it’s about trying to study the “best” way to live life  Consequently, a careful understanding of both will allow an individual to grow rather than simply survive, because those senses of “goodness” help provide us with direction we would otherwise lack  That direction shapes more than your career goals; how many friendships, for example, would you lose if you only made relationships based on who could help you survive?

11. Reaching a Consensus  In this sense, the ability to choose to live well is essentially the ability to choose insight over ignorance, to elevate the rich, varied lifestyle above the thoughtless and bland  You can choose either one, of course – we’ve decided you have free will for today  Now, what if I want to live well? How do I decide to do so? It seems like an awful lot of people have a lot of ideas about how to do things...how do I choose?  It helps to define ethics and morality before we do anything else – because goodness is, of course, relative, and my impression of living well could be entirely off-base

12. Reviewing Our Questions One by One  Can I choose my own moral and ethical codes?  Sure – the construction of those codes plays a huge role in determining any person’s sense of identity  Should I do so?  Well, it’s hard to subscribe exclusively to someone else’s ethical beliefs  That said, as long as my codes meet certain societal criteria (don’t throw things while teaching, etc.), I’ll probably be fine  (This doesn’t quite answer the question – you’ll be answering it yourself in due time)  Again: Do different teachers have different ethical standards?

13. One by One Continued  Now morals, on the other hand, often end up becoming legal issues  If you don’t find the voluntary taking of human life immoral, you’ll be staring across a wide ethical gulf from virtually everyone you already know  Can we be trusted to shape these things ourselves?  Do we need guides to help bring out our better angels?  Can we figure out what is “good” by ourselves?

14. Goodness Gracious  Does goodness lose its value if you leave its definition up to me?  Morals aren’t written in stone (usually!), and our codes of professional and personal conduct don’t always align with codes from our parents’ generation  Still, the concept of “good” as this nebulous, free-floating idea has inspired millions of debates over the centuries  It tends to irritate those who want a definite answer, and intrigues those who are curious about the possibilities of an open-ended concept of virtue

15. Goodness Gracious, Part II  When we say something is “good,” what do we really mean?  Does the use of “good” in “‘One Tree Hill’ is SO GOOD!” match the use of “good” in “Kindness is good for the soul”?  In some cases, we seem to be stating a fact about our opinions – when we say “One Tree Hill” is good, we’re expressing a favorable opinion toward the show with the expectation that others will agree (or be interested)  In other cases, we seem to be stating a fact or truth about something – “kindness is good,” for example  We call this evaluative objectivism

16. Evaluative Objectivism  Evaluative language assigns a “quality label” to something – this is good, that’s bad, this is right, that’s wrong – and there are different schools of thought relating to our uses of such language  Is there a “universal bad” or “universal good”?  An evaluative objectivist would answer in the affirmative, while an evaluative skeptic would disagree

17. Evaluative Skepticism  If you’re an evaluative skeptic, you tend to think that there are shades of grey in everything – that is, that good and evil are relative concepts rather than moral absolutes.  There are ways to deal with the skeptical thinker, just as there are ways to deal with the objectivist thinker.  The point, however, is that our very understanding of that single four-letter word – “good” – has a tremendous impact on how we see the world – and, therefore, on how we make moral and ethical decisions.  (Again, we’re operating under the assumption that choice exists!)

18. Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?  When I ask a simple question, then – “Are you living a good life?” – I know that a bunch of different responses are popping up around the classroom  This is because you each have your own interpretation of goodness, and you assign your own value/weight to goodness as well  Is virtue the most important part of life, or is it completely arbitrary?

19. The Discussion  So I’ll ask a simple question, twice – with one word changed – in a way that will invite further discussion.  The first question: “Are you living the ‘good life’?”  The second: “Are you living a good life?”  Obvious follow-up question: “Well, what defines ‘the’ good life? What defines ‘a’ good life?”  You do. Write away!

20. The Doors We Open, The Doors We Shut  The last major topic of discussion today is the role of influence of morals on your daily lives  Questions connecting to questions!  Do you feel that your own sense of morality – regardless of whether it is valid – limits or frees you?  In what ways does it affect you – and are you comfortable with those effects?  Think about this for a while so we can discuss the topic in greater detail!

21. Now It’s Your Turn!  Yesterday, you discussed choice  Today, I’d like you to articulate your personal philosophy regarding ethics and morality  Best of luck!