[lit-ideas] Re: On being called a Lyre

I think I've offered my 2 groshens worth in my 2 previous posts this evening on
a couple of points Eric Y raises below. Just a short remark about "moral
judgement fails without feeling." 

Notice this headline is ambiguous between at least three possible readings: 1)
no moral judgement is possible without a feeling accompanying it, 2) moral
judgements that arrive accompanied by feeling are deemed more valuable, sincere
and/or genuine, than those arriving unescorted by feeling or 3) no moral
judgement can be justified independent of some kind of reference to feeling. In
my view, all three readings of the claim misunderstand the nature of moral
judgement and are thus false. (In response to the objection; "Why is your
definition of 'morality' sovereign over all others?" I say that I offer an
unequivocal conception of "morality." We have other names for the sorts of
stuff that people want to include in morality. Only "morality" refers to the
obligations we have to ourselves and each other in virtue of our rational
autonomy. Since we live in a democratic state, we are free to use the term as
we wish, of course. 

It is possible to act on a belief having no reference to feeling. A moral
obligation is an example of such a belief. Obligations are motivationally ert
all by themselves. Moreover, I believe, with Kant, that a duty is the sole
morally worthy form of motivation. Others forms of motivation, when in the
service of morally right judgement are admirable and deserve recognition of the
virtuous  character of the agent, to be sure. And they are also useful in that
kind of moral education Rorty calls "sentimental education." 

Walter O
MUN

P.S.  A lurker asks me whether it's possible for one to perform a morally worthy
action, or correctly assess the rightness of a moral claim without understanding
the meaning of "morality." Were there no morally worthy maxims and actions prior
to the time of Kant? Did "moral justification" only appear on the planet thanks
to the musings of Kant? Heidegger once wrote that understanding is such a
fundamental "feature" of human being (Dasein) that we could say that human
being does not exist independent of its understanding of human being. It
follows that no autonomous person can be justifiably or correctly judged
independent of her reasons for her judgments and actions. 

("Metaphysics always buries its undertakers."



Quoting Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>:

> WO: Affective factors would seeem to be irrelevant 
> to such [moral] obligations or to the form of 
> reasoning we require of ourselves and others when 
> engaged in moral deliberation and judgement.
> 
> Poet Theodore Roethke expressed an opposing 
> judgment when he wrote, "We think by feeling. What 
> is there to know?"*
> 
> Neuroscientists recently backed Roethke's poetic 
> insight.
> 
> _Moral judgment fails without feelings_
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/uosc-mjf031907.php
> 
> Neuroscientists from Harvard, USC and Caltech 
> trace abnormal moral choices to damaged emotional 
> circuits
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Conducted by researchers at the University of 
> Southern California, Harvard University, Caltech 
> and the University of Iowa, the study shows that 
> emotion plays an important role in scenarios that 
> pose a moral dilemma.
> 
> 
> All the best,
> Eric
> 
> 
> _____
> * The Waking
> 
> I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
> I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
> I learn by going where I have to go.
> 
> We think by feeling. What is there to know?
> I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
> I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
> 
> Of those so close beside me, which are you?
> God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
> And learn by going where I have to go.
> 
> Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
> The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
> I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
> 
> Great Nature has another thing to do
> To you and me, so take the lively air,
> And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
> 
> This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
> What falls away is always. And is near.
> I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
> I learn by going where I have to go.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
> 



------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: