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| A challenging destination |
On Thursday another session (number 3 ) of grappling with Moral Philosophy, Ariel (the course leader) promised at the start of the course that it would not be easy and for sure I'm finding that is the case!
Benedict continued to be a thorn in our side - but I suppose a significant one, for us to negotiate (perhaps more a bump in the road!)
As was pointed out part of the problem is that to accept too much relativism is to have one's 'Moral intuition' challenged - we do recognise what is (or feels to be) intrinsically good but perhaps that is just the norms that society so effectively instils in us?
Let's face it the concept of slavery was not an issue for many of the great Ancient Greek philosophers indeed Aristotle thought that Slavery was 'Natural' thing with people being (naturally) Either Slaves or Non-Slaves - this is not a widely accepted idea these days!
We spent some time in the class thinking too about Plato and his forms (this bringing to light that Mathematicians are generally Plato- nists in their outlooks, recognising that the triangles they construct are but mere approximations of the perfect triangle that we might aspire to).
It was suggested that there is a form of inherent (which is a priori) it has been shown (to the satisfaction of some) that the untutored mind can be tested by exercising a dialectic to exhibit this inbuilt non-empirical knowledge -Immanuel Kant is associated with this area of study.
It seems that Plato considered the soul to be an eternal that goes from body to body and does not die when the body does.
Next week we'll continue to wrestle with Plato's ideas and consider Aristotle - our homework is to listen to another of the BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' programmes - this time on the topic of Virtue.
Some of this stuff is captured in Meta-ethics when we say we know instinctively what's right - where does it come from?
3 types:
Moral absolutism - Perhaps being a vegan might be an absolutist view (regardless of culture)
Moral Relativism - More than one moral position can be correct
Cultural Relativism - this allows other cultures to choose their own morality
Virtue Ethics was favoured by Aristotle (Eudiamonia/Flourishing)
Here the idea is that ethics are not intrinsic and can be learnt, - there are four classical (Cardinal) virtues from Plato but they each need to have their Golden Mean (which was Aristotle) to be recognised - check them out here.
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| Justice |
Art
The attributes and names of these figures vary according to the relevant tradition in the area.
Many churches and artwork have the Cardinal Virtues shown with symbolic items such as
Justice – sword, balance and scales, and a crown
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| Fortitude |
Fortitude – armour, club, with a lion, palm, tower, yoke, broken column
Prudence – book, scroll, mirror (occasionally attacked by a serpent)
Not Just a Shop.
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| Alex Swain is featured with his carry away furniture |
University of London has a site just on High Holborn, at ground level a showroom often displaying young artists work is currently a shop (but not just a shop) .
Some nice stuff there from cards to furniture ...
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| Take 5 minutes there |
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