Dear Platt,
On what basis do I form moral judgments? (The question of this thread as you
phrased it 9/4 12:39 -0400.)
Experience.
Experience (quality) has two aspects: static and Dynamic.
The Dynamic aspect is described (for me) best in the advices I just (9/4
20:10 +0200) quoted from 'The book of Christian discipline of the Yearly
Meeting of Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain' in my posting
to Angus. With or without the suggested substitutions, I don't mind.
An alternative description of this Dynamic aspect, which I very much
sympathise with (for it 'rings true to my experience' with these Quaker
advices) is given by John B. 29/3 17:35 +1000:
'"letting the situation dictate", "attending to what is" and "immediacy"'
and explained 5/4 7:59 +1000:
'as I become ... free to experience what is, rather than what my ego wants
to ..., then I encounter value, (quality, authority,) directly. This is ...
the outcome of a long developmental path (or sometimes, rarely, of a sudden
transformative experience ...). In this path the realm of ideas is not
unimportant, but must be transcended if immediacy is to be allowed.'
Seemingly opposite to what John B. write (about letting go of what your ego
wants) Sam's descriptions of 26/3 12:51 -0000 also 'ring true to my
experience' of Dynamic moral authority:
'living authentically' and 'becoming who I am' (paraphrased and taken out of
context by me).
Dynamic moral authority is something that somehow seems rooted deeper in my
very Self than Ego.
David B. paraphrased 23/3 18:17 -0700 as 'old Buddhist saying' 'that fear
and desire is the cause of all suffering'. I know the same idea as a text on
a Quaker poster: 'our fear and our greed are destroying our future'. In a
Quaker meeting for worship I once felt 'led' to rephrase this into a
positive statement:
'our trust and our selflessness are building our future'. This is what
'taking heed to promptings of love and truth', 'letting the situation
dictate' and 'living authentically' amount to. In MoQish: DQ builds sq.
The static aspect of my experience (and of moral authority) is simply given
by the static patterns of values that I am part of: maintaining a family,
being an incurable do-gooder, a Quaker, an economist, Dutch etc. I form
moral judgments on the basis of what these patterns of values require (or
rather what preserving them requires from me).
With friendly greetings,
Wim
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