"expanding the circle of morality"

Students (again) are strongly advised to read the relevant parts of this study guide while they are reading your course packet materials before class.

In this module we think about extending the boundaries of our moral concern beyond our own group to those around us, to those beyond our national borders, and to all living creatures. These issues are covered in your course packet between pages 3.1 and 3.40. Click on the links to go to the two sections we will look at in this module.

You should note that my role as a teacher is to provide you with reading ("food for thought"), help you understand what that reading is about in class (teach English), and then ask the questions. It is not my job to give you "answers on a plate" to the questions I ask. That is your job. You should therefore think carefully about the questions we look at, arrive at your own answers and then make sure that you are able to explain the reasons for your answers to those around you.

Poverty and Developmental Ethics
Course Packet 3.1 - 3.30

3.1 This part of the course examines whether our moral obligations extend beyond our national borders and beyond our human world to animals and to the environment itself.

3.3 notice what Ted Kopple says about the way we have become callous and that we have a limited tolerance to reading seeing and hearing about the tragedy of others.

3. 5 notice this second ABC News transcript about attempts made by Aspen Colorado to place limitations on the sale of fur. Notice the question often asked in relation to farm animals, that is, that these animals would probably not have existed without the farms or the fur trade. If the animal's death is quick and painless is it morally better for the animals to have existed for a short period of time and then die than not to have existed at all?

Personal Relationships (Course Packet 3.31 - 3.40)

In this section will we not discuss "life and death issues" as such but instead will discuss living & living a happy ethical life with others.

  • look at pages 3.31-32 about personal relationships & the ethical duties we owe other people

  • we can divide personal relationships into 3 categories & described the duties we owe these people:
    (i) to nonacquaintances ⇒ civility
    (ii) to acquaintances ⇒ friendship
    (iii) to close acquaintances ⇒ fidelity

  • note the evolution of the duty of civility to "strangers" from the Greek, through the Jewish & Christian, to the modern idea of a "civil society"

  • Christians, Jews & "modern man" have all had their own experiences of being excluded "outsiders" (the Jews in Egypt, the Christians in Rome, and modern man in an international world where everyone has had some experience of being an outsider!)

  • think about the first category (nonacquaintances)
  • the civility we owed nonacquaintances involved: (i) fairness based on equality of status, (ii) inclusiveness and not exclusiveness, (iii) propriety because we need to remember that this is a public space and not private, and (iv) adjust our behavior to share the interests of others

  • "We are not to call upon our status in spheres other than the civil sphere, we are not to prevent the general inclusion of all participants, we are not to engage in conduct appropriate to other spheres, and we are not to act in a way that offends general sensibilities" (pp.3.33-34)

  • think about relations with acquaintences & friendships

  • contrast writing about non-acquaintances (more recent) with acquaintances/friends (ancient)

  • look at Aristotle's "3 types of friendships" that focus variously on: (i) pleasure (fun), (ii) convenience and (iii) moral goodness and caring.

  • (i) and (ii) do not last but (iii) is the best because such a friendship endures

  • outlined 4 parts of friendships built on caring:
    (i) freedom - caring recognizes the "need for a degree of choice and freedom in the other"
    (ii) particularity - friends care for each other not because they represent some type or "icon" that is desired but because of a unique and particular character
    (iii) equality - friends must be roughly equal
    (iv) reciprocity - there must be "give and take" in a caring friendship

  • think about 2 "concerns" or questions:

    Is it difficult or even possible for men and women to be caring friends?
    Can friendships be immoral? The question here comes from the concern that a moral life involves an obligation to all people and friendships can threaten this ideal.

  • now think about the duty of fidelity we owe people with whom we have intimate relationships
  • look at the background ("history") of writing on this subject & note that it has usually meant a discussion of marriage
  • ask "What is involved in fidelity?"

  • • fidelity: "honest or lasting support; loyalty"
    • high fidelity ("hi-fi"): the production by electrical equipment of very good quality sound that is as similar as possible ("honest" or "loyal") to the original sound
  • note from our course packet (pp.3..38 - 39) that fidelity involves:
    • promise keeping - "One's word is one's bond"
    • exclusivity - "a boundary of intimacy" (note that this is very different from the duty of inclusivity that we owe strangers)
    • loyalty - that as important as the love and loyalty to a person in an intimate relationship is a "loyalty to loyalty itself!"
  • read (see p.3..39) two concerns that we have with the above:
    • that relationships may sometimes be immoral in that they exclude others
    • that an emphasis on loyalty and fidelity makes the termination of intimate relationships (even bad ones) difficult to justify ethically
  • read the commonsense advice on relationships generally (be a good listener, be able to express oneself, be aware of one's own and of the feelings of others, balance commitments to study, work etc and be polite)
  • note the (applied) ethical nature of personal relationships - relationships are not simply for our own sense of comfort and self-fulfillment but also involve our aspirations towards being good and doing right
  • conclusion to this section - to nonacquaintances we owe civility; to acquaintances we owe amity and to intimate acquaintances we owe a duty of fidelity