An Introduction to the Search of the Good: A Catholic Understanding of Moral living

► Life is like being out at sea: we live in times that may seem more fluid than solid, where the direction we need to travel does not seem obvious.  Storms may arise – and must learn to navigate or be lost to the mercy of the winds and currents in which we are caught.

► There are solid points of reference in the moral life ► By learning to recognize these solid points of reference for developing our skills in order to be able to navigate through life using these reference points, we will succeed in finding direction

How do you understand the search for the good in life?

What makes experiences ethical/moral? ► Activity #1 –  Ethics is……………..  Morality is………………  Good means….

► All experiences can be seen as having an ethical/moral dimension.

► Activity #2 ~ Ethics or Morality? Which is it?  i) In your home groups read Ethics or morality? Which is it? and highlight the difference between ethics and morality.  ii) Come up with a metaphor (one that is not used in the text) to distinguish between ethics and morality

Ethics or Morality? ► Ethics = comes from the Greek ta ethika (having to do with good character) and is interested in the good that we humans tend toward – happiness and freedom

► Morality = comes from the Latin word moralitas (customs, habits, and manners of shaping human life) and is interested in how humans can attain this good such as laws, rules, commandments

► Love of God is a good starting point for ethics… as Ethics is not first of all about obligations and duties, or about rules of behaviour or laws, but rather understanding that the driving force of ethics is the good. ► Norms and duties are not the final word – the good is.

► Ethics searches for the infinite – the impossible first of all, then it returns it to our day to day actions (obligations, responsibilities etc…) towards others. ► Ethics guides morality it gives vision to our actions

► The search for the infinite good = ethics; how we translate this search into our actions (how we conduct ourselves)= morality ► Morality is seen at work through rules or guidelines of behaviour and good action.

► When we look at Ethics and Morality we tend to look at them as a series of do’s and don’ts imposed onto us by an outside authority. ► We may feel as these obligations may infringe our personal freedoms and responsibilities which we may come to resent.

► At times we may even think that ethics and morality is simply placed upon us to think about and deal with rather than being something that is ours….however ethics plays a large part of what it means to be human.