Mikey: Everything is learned. Everything, that is, except some rudimentary physical instincts like sucking. Principles can certainly be taught, but I don't know if you can teach virtue (assuming virtue is behavior based on principles). Take, for example, two doctors, both value life. One becomes a heart surgeon and makes a million dollars, the other joins Doctors Without Borders and lives modestly all his life. To me the second man is far more virtuous than the first though the first may live an exemplary life. Was the second man taught to be virtuous or did he learn to be through some life experiences that are not reducible to some lessons? I think the latter. He was taught principles, but life made him virtuous.
Does this preclude a 'profit motive' from EVER being virtuous? Was Mother Teresa 'virtuous'? Do you think Christopher Hitchens would agree? Is Hitchens virtuous?
Whose standards are we to use?
Surprisingly, not hung over
p
_________________ [insert pithy quote here] Paul Stone pas@xxxxxxxx Leamington, ON. Canada
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