Sunday, when listening to Dr. Cantor, Chancellor of Rutgers University on the NPR program On Being she used the term moral construct in reference in talking about her beliefs regarding the duty of the institutions of higher learning to be of the world rather than in the world. The use of the term moral construct immediately went off on its own to review various folder in my internal file cabinets containing many questions and the thoughts of many philosophers, theologians and others about such issues as moral imperatives, ethics and the general process of how we humans decide what is right and wrong behavior.
As is true for most professionals living in this time I have had to agree to several different codes of ethics. For he most part they are similar. I have noticed that in the past few years the booklets containing these codes have grown from a few pages at most to thick documents which attempt to cover every possible behavior in which one might engage in interacting with a client or with any other person or institution about the client or the case concerning the client. Of course, no document can cover all possible contingencies and, thus, one or more ethics boards still might examine one’s professional behavior. It might also be examined by the full board of an organization or by someone representing the legal system.
Of course, these rules may, at times, conflict with one’s personal beliefs about what is right or wrong (what is ethical or what is moral). A recent situation in the United States concerned a county clerk in Kentucky who claims that her personal morals prevents her from issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. In this case she is refusing to obey a law outlining the duties of county clerks in Kentucky. She was, in fact, jailed, by refusing to obey the law. Her behavior was, however, lauded by many as a courageous act in which she obeyed the moral imperative to listen to her religious conviction which I am sure she would say are the clear will of the God of her understanding.
The other day I was talking to a Muslim friend who is the Inman for the local Mosque. His religion tells him that same sex behavior is immoral and that women and men need to be kept separate in the services of the Mosque. Those beliefs are different than mine. Many of his other religious beliefs are very consistent with my own.
We in the United States live in a secular society, which means that the laws and community expectations have to strive to be inclusive enough to respect the diverse moral imperatives of all of its citizens. Obviously this is not an easy task.
It falls to we parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other trusted adult to impart to the children for whom we are responsible our beliefs about the moral imperatives and the ethics of the community. In addition to ethics there are also community standards and customs.
I noticed in the St. Petersburg, Florida Tribune on October 12 that the Florida Supreme Court has decided that judges in the State of Florida must wear black robes with has no decoration when they are in court. Apparently at least one judge had been wearing blue and red robes. No one was suggesting that the wearing of robes, which were not black, was a violation or a moral imperative or an ethics rule. One Chief Judge suggested that a black robe carries a lot of weight and suggests, “This is a serious business that we are in.” This then is a custom
Obviously, teaching our children the customs, ethics, laws and moral imperatives by which a community now lives is no easy task. Many of us also believe that even as a parent we want our children to learn to think for themselves and, to do what they decide is the most moral behavior while also teaching them the consequences of violating accepted customs, ethics, and laws. More than ever, with few exceptions, our children have access to a great deal of information about the various customs, ethics, laws and moral imperatives which guide we humans in various communities around the world. Increasing good nutrition for many and other health habits have allowed many to get beyond having to spend all their time and energy just surviving although the number who still are in that position are staggering. While our children often have more information their experience and actual brain development necessitates that we continue to be available to mentor them to sort through their thoughts and feelings about the moral imperatives and habits which are going to guide them in their day to day decisions.
Since the terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably it is important to agree on how we are going to use those term or at least to have operational definition of the terms. It will then be important to come up with a set of criteria we are going to use to examine issues of morality and to evaluate ethical rules.
Lo and behold! There is a web site called ethicsdefined.org as well as many other sites dedicated to these questions. When one goggles such an important topic and gets hundreds or thousands of hits one might be tempted to think that we humans are indeed moving quickly to a level of development which posits morals and ethics based on ongoing prayerful/thoughtful, and open, non-biased exploration. Yet, if one accesses any major news sources one will get the impression that thoughtful consideration of the questions is limited to a few theologians, philosophers, and social scientists. After all, how could any thoughtful person continue to engage in war, be self-righteous/arrogant, or think that they and only they have the correct understanding of moral imperatives and ethical rules. On ethicsdefined.org we find:
“Jonathan Haidt has come up with a definition of Morality that is quite useful. He used secular means (the scientific method) to arrive at what he considered a sound foundation for Morality (which he denotes as synonymous with Ethics). He has reduced Morality to be comprised of five basic components.
1 Harm/Care
2 Fairness/Reciprocity
3 In-group/loyalty
4 Authority/respect
5 Purity/SanctityEthics and morals relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. While they are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different: ethics refer to rules provided by an external source, e.g., codes of conduct in workplaces or principles in religions. Morals refer to an individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong. “Ethicsdefined.org
Obviously the unidentified author (as far as I could determine) of ethicsdefined.org was incorrect in asserting that Mr. Haidt denotes morality as synonymous with ethics.
Another organization (edge.org) recently sponsored a conference, which they entitled “The New Science of Morality” (apparently they had not been aware of pre-Socratic, Socratic and subsequent thinkers).
A consensus statement signed by several scholars (list below):
1) Morality is a natural phenomenon and a cultural phenomenon
2) Many of the psychological building blocks of morality are innate
3) Moral judgments are often made intuitively, with little deliberation or conscious weighing of evidence and alternatives
4) Conscious moral reasoning plays multiple roles in our moral lives
5) Moral judgments and values are often at odds with actual behavior
6) Many areas of the brain are recruited for moral cognition, yet there is no "moral center" in the brain
7) Morality varies across individuals and cultures
8) Moral systems support human flourishing, to varying degrees
(From http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/...)
Obviously this subject is going to require a lot of very sustained, serious, time-consuming thought, prayer, reading and consultation. If we are going to fulfill our responsibility (Is this ideal of responsibility itself a moral imperative, a custom or an ethical rule?) we should quit our outside jobs (sometimes often inaccurately referred to as our day jobs) and devote full time to this task. Alternatively we should turn the task over to teachers, to professional child rearers which whom the children live full time and at whose knees our children sit engaging in Socratic discussion for many hours every day (they should especially enjoy the ADD child) None of this is practical of course.
I suspect that the mere fact that so many of us are asking these questions and, hopefully, sharing them with the children with whom we come into contact, will set the stage for how thoughtfully we and they approach each of the many decisions we must make every day. My guess is that the more that it is a “we” humbly asking each other to engage in this endeavor the closer we will come to behaving in a manner with is mutually respectful and loving. That assumes, of course, that we see mutual respect and loving as moral imperatives. Hummmm,
I can hardly wait to have this discussion with my six-year-old friend Sam.
Written October 12, 2015
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