14.ii.07 Ethics on SS Valentines' Day

Yes, SS Valentines': there were two Saints Valentine, both of whom were martyred. During the colonial period, the Mennonites in this area at least found a greater resonance with Valentines' Day than with Christmas, presumably in part because of the association with martyrdom ("The Martyrs' Mirror" being a key [and quite bulky] text in the Mennonite library).

So, we're back in the educational saddle again after the better part of two days off due to weather. On Monday I left the college with no suspicions of the weather predictions, and I took no work with me, in part because my back pain was acute and I knew I would not be able to concentrate, and in part because I was figuring on being in on Tuesday to read over the descriptive ethics projects. Tuesday morning I went to my medical clinic and met with a new doctor in the practice, who examined my back and suggested that I take an anti-inflammatory medication for two weeks, at the end of which time we will meet again and determine whether I need to undergo an MRI scan. Meanwhile, I am to use hot compresses as needed and ease back into gentle yoga; perhaps, she says, I should wait to start the weight-lifting program I was planning on, or just use lighter dumbbells with more reps.

After my appointment, I drove to my parents'; by this time the snow was beginning. While I was visiting with my parents (who were eager for me to try out some chairs which they thought would be better for my back than the wooden-seated windsors I have have at home, and also to have me use a full-body massaging heating pad [very noisy and weirdly jarring -- I'm used to a sticky yoga mat or a futon, or the ground]) I received the call that classes would be cancelled. By that time, about a quarter inch of snow and the same of ice was on the ground, and I could not safely back my van out of my parents' driveway, so I stayed the night there, driving directly home about mid-day Wednesday, so again, I did not pick up student work, thinking that I would get it when I came in for class. I had some difficulty driving up the lane, although the main roads were safe. They might even have been safe with the usual quantity of traffic, but I was glad that very few drivers were out. And I was glad, too, when I found that evening classes had been cancelled, because as I was bringing some items in from the car, I slipped twice on the ice. Since my landlord is in South Africa until later this month, if I had been hurt, I might have been stuck on the ice until I could crawl indoors, and I wasn't enthusiastic about that possibility.

This morning leaving to come to the college, the driveway at my house was even more slick than yesterday, but again, once I was out to the main road, everything was fine. I arrived and then attended a series of meetings until class-time, and so I still have a stack of descriptive ethics projects to review, but I will take them home with me this evening.

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Because of the class cancellation Tuesday, the deadline for topic selection for the classical-school exercise is postponed until Tuesday the 19th. From the handout on ethical criteria (emotive-criteria, intuitive-criteria, extrinsic-criteria, intrinsic-criteria), or from other experience, select two schools of ethics you find intriguing. Present your selections with an explanation of what you find intriguing about those schools. About a paragraph for each school should be sufficient. You need not perform much research before making the selection, although you may: the next step is the annotated bibliography. For this, be certain to list not fewer than five sources in not fewer than three media. You are welcome to begin with a key-word search, or even with Wikipedia, but be sure to use this only as a starting point; look for bibliographic suggestions and follow up on them.

A brief overview of my talk today:

In the classical system project (comparing two classic schools of ethical thought), you are to articulate principles of the schools you examine. Therefore, you must grasp clearly the notion of principle as opposed to issue.

As examples, I spoke of the principles of Stoicism as shown in Epictetus and those of Hedonism.

In Stoicism, one of the basic principles is that Nature is a controlling and limiting factor: things are as they are, and there is nothing one can do about that.

Another is that the will is essentially free: one can choose to do whatever one can do. One can also choose to do what one cannot do, but in this case one will be disappointed, because simply to will something is not to be able to do it. I may wish to fly and put a lot of effort into trying to fly, but the fact is that humans are not capable of flight, and probably I will do a good deal of injury to my body if I persist in acting as though they are.

These two principles, the freedom of the will and the limits of nature, may seem to be at odds with each other. The reconciliation, for Stoics, comes in the idea that one should attune one's will to desire to act only the way one can. If one does not understand the way things are, and acts contrary to nature, one will be unhappy, but if one understands how things are and does not wish them to be otherwise, but is contented with things as they are, one will be happy.

This position proposes that goodness, that which is right, is found when one understands logic (the organization of thoughts, but also the organization of things and processes in nature) and physics (the limits of material reality, especially cause and effect) and acts in accord with them alone.

A different approach to goodness is found in Hedonism. The term Hedonism comes from the Greek word "hedone" meaning "pleasure". In Hedonism, the good is defined by that which is pleasant, or which brings pleasure: what is evil is that which limits pleasure or causes pain, or is pain, or privation of pleasure. This might seem unsophisticated and egocentric, and hedonism can be unsophisticated and egocentric, but this depends in part upon whether pleasure is viewed simply as a matter of quantity or as a matter of quality.

Some would argue that simply having much of something pleasurable is enough to increase pleasure, and therefore to have good. But others would understand that, for example, to play a song over and over, even if it is a perfectly good song, may not increase the pleasure from that song, or one's pleasure generally. It might be better to have one bar of Lindt chocolate than five Hershey bars (but of course this may be very largely or entirely a matter of taste: someone may find Hershey to be exquisite comparable to Lindt [it is conceivable]). The emphasis of quality over quantity characterizes the Epicurean school of hedonism.

Jeremy Bentham argued that any act could be judged as to its value using what he called an "hedonic calculus", measured based on seven essential factors. His godson J.S. Mill was less sanguine about exact quantitative measurement of pleasures, and furthermore Mill argued that pleasure was not merely individual: one should act to produce the greatest possible good (pleasure) for the greatest possible number of people. The usefulness or pleasure-production of any act, its utility, in Mill's terminology, was determined largely by its relationship to this basic principle of utility: to produce the greatest good for the greatest number.

Thus, in Mill's version of hedonism, one is guided to the higher pleasures of providing for social welfare with fine medicine, education, transportation, good government, an efficient and profitable economy, and so on.

Also, throughout the hedonistic schools, one finds the need to balance momentary pains with future pleasures. It may be that eating carefully now is a pain, but compared with the pleasure of a long life with a healthy body, these pains are worthwhile. It may be that guitar practice is a pain, but the pleasurable reward comes when one can play effortlessly (for those of us who achieve such a state).

So, under the general banner of hedonism, we can see the following principles:

1. The good = the pleasurable.
2. The end may justify the means (no pain, no gain).
3. Less of high quality is better than more of low quality (Epicurus).
4. Pleasure may be measured (Bentham).
5. The highest pleasure comes from altruism (Mill).

In none of these cases are specifics put forward; these are universal principles, applicable to any moral issues. It is the principles of the classical systems you examine which are to be the focus of your next project; only in the third project should you concentrate on issues.