In Search of the Good!

1
In Search of the Good!

• Evolution of Catholic Morality

2
The Journey
We will attempt to uncover in this course what it
means to be ethical and how Catholic Morality has
evolved and the factors that have shaped and
formed that Morality.
3
The Way

• History/Understanding of Ethics
• Historical Roadmap of how Christian Ethics has
  evolved from the Covenant to Present Day.

Woah!
4
The Basics

• Theology The Study of God
• Philosophy The Love of Wisdom
• Religion An organized expression of a
  communitys belief in the Sacred

5
What do I love when I Love God?St. Augustine

• Ethics is the belief in a right/wrong a
  good/evil. (Fr. Greek Ta Ethika meaning good
  character)
• Morality is the translation of that good into our
  actions. (Fr. Latin Moralitas having to do with
  customs or habits)

6
Examples of Moral Systems

• 10 Commandments
• Buddhist Precepts
• 5 Pillars
• Talmud/Torah
• Business codes of conduct
• Student Handbook
• Collective agreements in Sports (personal conduct
  policies)

7
Why Are we Ethical?

• We can basically reduce the reasons human beings
  act ethically down to 4.

8
1. The Scream

• Action/Reaction
• Proposed by Ken Melchin in his work Living with
  other People.
• This is basically and action/reaction response.

9
2 The Experience of Other/Beggar

• The Beggar
• This is put forward by Emmanuel Levinas in his
  work Totality and Infinity
• This experience is referred to often as The
  face as it is the face of the other that causes
  us to act.

10
What is she telling you?
11
What are they telling you?
12
What is she telling you?
13
What she telling you?
14
Whats this little guy telling you?.......
15
And these two little darlings?
16
3 I have toThe experience of obligation

• This is put forward by Immanuel Kant.
• In this we act out of obligation/responsibility
• This is where we act because we feel the
  obligation to not necessarily the desire to.

17
4 The IntolerableExperience of Justice

• This reason compels us to act based on injustice
  or the intolerable we feel that something must be
  done because it is not fair.
• This was really pioneered by the Church
  especially Pope Paul VI

18
Ethical Camps

• To examine those reasons even further we can for
  our purpose focus on three ethical camps that are
  crucial to understanding Catholic Ethics.
• 1. Aristotle (Teleological Ethics)
• 2. Kant (Deontological Ethics)
• 3. Levinas (Relational Ethics)

19
Aristotle384-322 B.C

• Aristotle's ethics are called Teleological ethics
  from the root word telos which means end
  goal/purpose.

20
Kant1724-1804

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vi2tvRhodzf0feature
  related
• Deontological ethics based on the root word Deon
  which means Duty.
• Wrote Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
  Critique of Pure Reason
• Maxims Categorical Imperative/Means and End
• Theoretical Reason
• Practical Reason

21
Emmanuel Levinas1905-1995

• Ethics of the Face
• We find The Good (God) in each other not in what
  is similar about each of us but what is unique.
• Since God is much more that we can comprehend we
  find traces of him in what is unique in each of
  us. It is our seeing that uniqueness in each
  other that we find God.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vz6RLHKRs9D8feature
  related

22
Levinas Continued.

• Pope John Paul II refers to Levinas in his work
  The New Millennium
• Matt 25 When I was Hungry you fed me
  illustrates the thought of Levinas.
• Psalm 27 Your face O Lord I seek
• God touches us through the face of the other.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
  states The more one does what is good, the freer
  one becomes

23
Definitions of Importance

• Empiricism Knowledge comes from experience or
  evidence that can be perceived by the senses.
• Subjective relating to a persons own
  perception and understanding of a reality. What
  is thought to be.
• Objective relating to a sensible experience
  that is independent of any one individuals
  thought. What is.

24
To speak of the Human Person .Autonomous, Self
Directed Gula
In This Chapter we will analyze the human person
and attempt to understand why and how it is that
human beings act?
25
Are We Free?

• Agent A person who acts freely and knowingly and
  is self-directed.
• At the heart of ethics is the belief that Humans
  are free to choosein this chapter we will
  examine those who believe this and those who
  believe we might to some extent be determined by
  different Biological and/or Social Forces.

26
Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Analytic Philosophy For anything to have value
  it must be empirically verifiable.
• He argues against Analytic Philosophy stating
  that Human Intention/Free Will is not necessarily
  something that is measurable but is real.
• When I raise my arm, my arm goes up

27
L.W Continued

• Wittgenstein believes that human intention is
  left over when analyzing his statement. L.W
  contends that not everything that has value about
  the human person is empirically verifiable.

28
Freedom

• As Catholics we believe that we are Free.
• St. Augustine states We will when we will, but
  it is God that allows us the power to act
• God influences but does not control us. We call
  this Providence.
• Augustine wrote on Freedom during the time of the
  Pelagians who believed Humanity was fully free
  and the Manicheans who denied any type of freedom
  whatsoever.

29
Freedom Cont.

• We attempt to define Freedom in the Catechism of
  the Catholic Church (CCC)
• CCC 1744 Freedom is the power to act or not to
  act we are most fully free when our actions are
  directed toward the Good (God)
• CCC1745 Freedom as a result makes us
  responsible and accountable for what we do.
• CCC1761 One may not do evil so that good may
  result from it.
• CCC1754 Circumstances contribute to making an
  immoral act more severe (Aggravate) or Less
  Severe (Mitigate)

30
Descartes
je pense, darefore, je suis
31
Determinism
32
Groups of Determinists

• We can organize Determinists into three
  categories Scientific/Social/Religious.

33
Scientific Determinists
G.E Moore
34
G.E Moore

• G.E Moore in his work Principia Ethica
  discusses his theory of Naturalism.
• Naturalism sees the universe as a unified system
  operating according to the Laws of cause and
  effect.
• Naturalism attempts to reduce human behavior to
  Biological\Physical causes.
• The Human Being is a complex series of cause and
  effect.

35
Scientific Determinism Cont.

• An example of naturalism is The Human Genome
  Project.
• If Naturalism is true then Ethics would belong in
  the study of Biology.
• If Naturalism is true then according to Ted
  Peters Human culture would be on a leash, a
  short leash controlled by a Genetic Agenda

36
Other Consequences

• If Human Behaviour is reducible then surely we
  can replicate it. (A.I)
• Turing was the first to conceive of intelligent
  Machines.
• McCarthy coined the term A.I
• Deep Blue the IBM supercomputer was the first
  example of A.I when it defeated reigning world
  Chess Champion Gary Kasparov (Watson is IBMS
  Latest Version of a Supercomputer)

37

• Others who believed this would be Huxley who
  stated The Brain is a Machine Like everything
  else
• Concepts such as teleportation would illustrate
  the fact that humans can be reduced and then
  re-configured.
• Philosophers such as Descartes, Aristotle and
  Plato would believe that there is a distinction
  between the mind and the brain.

38
Social Determinists
Freud, Adler, Jung and Rank Make up the Vienna
Psychological Society.
39
Social Determinism

• Social Determinism believes that Human Behaviour
  is a result of a multitude of Social Causes.
• Freud's Theory of the Unconscious
• Freud believed that we are ruled by 2 instincts.
• Eros Life instinct (pleasure seeking)
• Thanatos Death Instinct (pain avoiding)

40
Religious Determinism
John Calvin and The Puritan Tradition
41
Religious Determinism

• John Calvin believed that Human Beings do not
  earn their Salvation. Calvin believed that God
  had already chosen those who would be saved. He
  called this Doctrine Pre-Destination
• The Puritan tradition believed that humanity was
  so depraved that we all deserved Hell. And that
  if we are saved it is all because of Gods Grace.

42
Final Thoughts on Freedom/Determinism

• Obviously we are moving forward with the belief
  that we are free and therefore accountable for
  what we do. (If we didnt believe in freedom the
  course would end now)
• Also we do understand that we definitely are
  influenced by genetic/social factors but that we
  do possess Free Will

43
Conscience

• Our Conscience is what we use to make the
  decisions we make ?
• Lets examine some factors that shape and form
  our conscience (The church is one of those
  factors and the remainder of the course will
  focus on how the Church shaped and formed its
  Conscience as an institution through a historical
  context, then we will examine how we apply that
  teaching)

44
Factors That Shape

• A The Importance of Others
• Am I my brothers Keeper Genesis
• In the West we see others as obstacle
• Sartre saw others as My Hell
• Martin Niemoeller in his work First they came
  for the Communists Sees all of us linked.

45
B The Importance of Having Direction in Life

• Our Direction effects our decisions.
• Charles Taylor believes there is a link between
  identity and moral stance.
• Fr. Ron Rolheiser Meaning and Happiness

46
C The Importance of Communication and Language

• Our language impacts how we see the world since
  we decode our experience using language.
• Charles Taylor believes to answer the question
  Who am I you must examine 3 Things
• 1. Community in which you were born
• 2. The Language you Speak
• 3. By Whom you were raised

47
D. The Importance of Character and Ones Body

• Character means how our actions over time become
  fixed in our nature
• Plant an action.
• Moral Fibre Is like muscle fibre the more you
  exercise it the stronger it becomes

48
E. The Importance of Conscience

• All of the previous effect conscience and your
  conscience according to our faith is summed up in
  CCC 1776/1777/1778
• Thomas More is an important example of how our
  Conscience impacts our person!
• The Kings servant but Gods first

49
E. The Importance of Development of Conscience

• Your Conscience develops as you mature
• Your Conscience develops as you follow norms
• Your Conscience helps you deal with your moral
  failure
• Your Conscience develops as you participate in
  the life of the Church
• Your Conscience develops as you grow in humility
  (I dont know everything)

50
Our Conscience can be misinformed/malformed

• Rationalization
• Trivialization
• Misinformation
• Means to an End
• Ends justify the immoral means
• Difficult to reason