ETHICS

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ETHICS SPIRITUALITY

• Dr. Jerry Fischer
• Professor, Counseling School Psychology

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Defining Spirituality

• What is the role of spirituality in mainstream US
  culture today?

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Religion Spirituality

• Spirituality ? Religion
• Religion ? Spirituality
• Spirituality ? Religion

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Philosophy, Ethics, and SpiritualityA Short
Historical Overview

• Africa, the Americas, Australia, and other
  places family, kinship, communal life, no
  beginnings and ends, animism, nature is
  spiritual.
• Middle East
• Judaism-monotheism, law, blame and responsibility
• Zarathustra-monotheism, fire, evil, and Satan

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History Continued

• India
• Hinduism-faces of one God, Brahma (creator),
  Vishnu (sustainer), Shiva (destroyer), mysticism,
  yoga (spiritual self-discipline), and liberation
  from suffering.
• Buddism, life is suffering, suffering comes from
  selfish desire, desire can be eliminated,
  enlightenment and Nirvana, reality is a series of
  momentary existences, everything is linked
  through a causal chain.

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History Continued

• China
• Confucianism-harmonious community, jen (social
  virtue) virtue vs. law, li (observing
  ceremonial forms), disciplined exercise to
  achieve spiritual mastery over oneself, chi
  (energy).
• Taoism, tuning the inner person to the rhythms of
  nature, the Way of the universe, life and death
  are a part of the yin and yang.

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History Continued

• The Greeks
• What is reality? Thales-water, Anaximander-earth,
  air, fire, and water, Pythagoras-mathematics,
  Heraclitus-fire, Parmenides Zeno-reality and
  appearance (no change), Democritus-atoms.
• Socrates Plato-innate goodness, idealism (world
  of forms ideas), material world is a shadow.

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History Continued

• Aristotle-people have a purpose (and end)
  Happiness (virtuous activity in accordance with
  reason), virtue involves an optimum balance and
  measure in ones behavior (the mean between
  extremes), realism, substance and essence.

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History Continued

• Christianity-mercy and forgiveness, love God with
  ones whole heart and love ones neighbor as
  oneself, sacrifice of Jesus, redemption for mans
  sins, individual salvation.

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History Continued

• Islam-monotheism, Allah, justice (reward good and
  punish evil), jihad (war against evil), people
  have an inner jihad, Allah distributes justice in
  the afterlife.
• The Middle Ages-proof of Gods existence, ethics
  relies on Gods existence.
• Plotinus, the Great Chain of Being, all of
  reality is connected, from lower sense reality
  to the higher spiritual reality. World of Sense
  ? Soul ? Divine Mind ?The Absolute Source.

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That Man Kant

• Modern World-Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Bacon (our
  experienced universe obeys laws), Kant, Critique
  of Pure Reason, we experience (organize and
  constitute) reality through our minds, but we can
  sense objects in space and time and in causal
  relationships, Critique of Practical Reason,
  because we reason we can reach the same
  conclusions regarding universally obligatory
  laws. We are not controlled by the physical
  world because our minds are constructed with free
  will. Pure and Practical reason point to God but
  our minds cannot prove God. We have faith

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Reactions to Modernism

• Utilitarianism-(industrial revolution) greatest
  good for the greatest number.
• Romanticism-return to a more simple and
  integrated world.
• Existentialism-we create our own world-Nietzsche
  (God is dead)-Kierkegaard-(leap of faith).
• Marxism-dialectical materialism

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More Reactions

• Unconscious-Freud, irrationality
• Pragmatism-learn by doing, what works, Dewey
• Logic-mathematics (Russell, Husserl and
  Whitehead)
• Mysticism-transforming our consciousness to
  access higher orders of reality
• Unified Field Theory-Cosmos, Newtonian, Quantum
• Post Modernism-feminism (Gilligan) and social
  constructionism

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What Can We Say?

• Looking back on the historical developments of
  philosophy, spirituality, and ethics, what does
  it mean?
• Where have we come from? Where are we going?
• What does it mean for us as counselors? What
  does it mean for our clients?

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Principle Ethics Revisited

• Can we apply ethical principles without virtue or
  spirituality?
• What about cultural relativism?
• Is social constructionism the answer?

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