In Search of the Good! Evolution of Catholic Morality

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.

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

The Basics  Theology: The Study of God  Philosophy: The Love of Wisdom  Religion: An organized expression of a communities belief in the Sacred

“What do I love when I Love God…” St. Augustine  Ethics is the belief in a right/wrong a good/evil. (from the Greek, Ta Ethika meaning good character)  Morality is the translation of that good into our actions. (from the Latin, Moralitas having to do with customs or habits)

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)

Why Are we Ethical?  We can basically reduce the reasons humans act ethically down to 4.

#1The Scream  Action/Reaction  Proposed by Ken Melchin in his work “Living with other People”.  This is basically an action/reaction response.

#2 The Experience of Other/Beggar  The Beggar  This is put forward by Emmanuel Levinas in his work Totality and Infinity  This experience is often referred to as “ The face ” as it is the face of the other that causes us to act.

#3 I have to The 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.

#4 The Intolerable: Experience 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

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)

Aristotle B.C  Aristotle's ethics are called Teleological ethics from the root word telos which means end, goal or purpose.  Lets examine some of the thought of Aristotle.  R_BU0m8&feature=related R_BU0m8&feature=related  Let us list some of his accomplishments and flush out his philosophy.

Kant  zf0&feature=related zf0&feature=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

Emmanuel Levinas  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.  9D8&feature=related 9D8&feature=related

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”

“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?

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 choose…in 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.

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”

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.

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.

Freedom Continued….  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)

Determinism

Groups of Determinists  We can organize Determinists into three categories: Scientific/Social/Religious.

Scientific Determinists 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.

Scientific Determinism Continued  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”

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 IBM’S Latest Version of a Supercomputer)

 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.

Social Determinists Freud, Adler, Jung and Rank Make up the Vienna Psychological Society. So, did you get along vith your muzzer?

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. 1. Eros: Life instinct (pleasure seeking) 2. Thanatos: Death Instinct (pain avoiding)

Religious Determinism John Calvin and The Puritan Tradition

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 God’s Grace.

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 didn’t 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”

Conscience  Our Conscience is what we use to make the decisions we make  Let’s 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)

Factors That Shape  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.

B: The Importance of Having Direction in Life  Our Direction affects our decisions.  Charles Taylor believes there is a link between identity and moral stance.  Fr. Ron Rolheiser “Meaning and Happiness…”

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

D. The Importance of Character and One’s 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

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”

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 don’t know everything)

Our Conscience can be misinformed/malformed  Rationalization  Trivialization  Misinformation  Means to an End  Ends justify the immoral means  Difficult to reason