Rita:What are moral issues in the Plague?What are the moral arguments?
A good question to begin with is where does the moral person come from? Where does our morality come from?Selznick, from last week, said we are constructive out of our relationships with others-we experience much as individuals, but much of our morality comes from other people- through our relationships and communities.The morals become stitched into our psyche, into our physical reactions.
Philip Selznick- Morality indeed enhances the common good- moral decisions enhance the common good.But other things can too- good will, health care, etc.But it’s not the same as morality- morality is the enhancement of fellowship.This ties directly to relationships.The What is Morality? re is a difference between moral realism and moral idealism.Idealism is what we aspire to.They are our ideals.Then there is moral realism- this is what we can rely on.What is it that is in place that we can count on day to day?An enhancement of morality relates directly to moral realism.Selznick then goes on to explore how do we enhance it.Morality has its roots in the mundane facts of dependency and interconnectedness.It makes “concern for well being” a governing standard or ideal- regardless of one’s self.In order to think in an interconnectedness you must put the well-being of the whole first.
Moral competence: our capacity as individuals to act moral.He says that this is a trait we are born with.Traits, impulse, character, personality.We develop these impulses to moral competence.
Human betterment: A variable in this is the want to make the world better.It is the realization of values at a personal level.Communities, health organizations, all play an important role in human betterment.“Integrated moral self”- it is each one of us.We must each think of ourselves as morally integrated always in this web we are, individual but never out of the web.Soul- moral unity- to think of enhancing our souls, losing our souls.
Core values- the capacity for responsibility, autonomy, reason.The ability to do that has to include not only how communities function but also what happens to a new member of that community as they are growing up.How are they brought up, how are they shaped?
Selznick brings in John Dewey- associated with progressive education and developmental theory.Falls in between social learning theory and genetic explanations.Whatever happens to us is the result of an interaction.It is either biological/psychological- things we are born with and are manifested throughout our lives; culture- where we come from, what our community was like- very important for cognitive development; cognition, morality, our reason.Through this we see that we are made; we are different.
Dynamic, organic stimulus- we keep taking in, assimilating.But something can happen, and our expectations are no longer met.When we move from assimilating to accommodating is when we learn.
Erik Erikson: personality/psychology (ages)- going through the different stages successfully is like a pyramid- you must have a good foundation to build on.First is trust- establishes an organic level of trust in the first months of life- always come back to it.Autonomy is the negative possibility of shame and doubt.Erikson finds this in toilet training.Initiative- wanting to do things on their own- hovering parents interfere with this.Continues along pyramid.We develop on the positive or negative side of these, and we find them through our childhood interactions.
Jean Piaget: Cognitive- what explains intelligence?What explains thinking?Operational/concrete/abstract.What kids know about the world is what they can see.Created the experiment of pouring a certain amount of water from a tall, cylindrical container into a shorter, wider dish.He then asked kids which had more water, and the response was constantly the cylinder because that is what their minds could understand.
John Dewey: Moral/justice:Interested in how children go from morality of rules and to justice.
Lawrence Kohlberg:moral reasoning.Developed idea of stages.First: punishment; relative; good boy, good girl; law and order; social context; universal principles.