February 17, 1011: Morality by Nic P.

     Nic P offered us a definition of morality that is quite interesting: "Morality is a process of individual discovery, not a position or principal, not a set of rules. Human beings as we have evolved need to live in communal societies and yet are bound by self interest which leads us into conflict. This is unlike ants, for eg, which are strongly social and not conflicted.
     Do moral rules offer us impowerment or do they diminish us in some way?
     Phillippa Foot, granddaughter of Grover Cleveland, wrote a book called Natural Goodness, when she was 80 years old. She is interested in moral philosophy. Her book is very dense but it still contains lots of beauty. She says there is a normative condition in nature which is a moral view. She says for example that in nature there is an oak tree which if its roots function to bring nutrients out of the soil, and the trunk functions to hold the tree up, and if the leafy top functions to absorb sunlight, then the tree is not defective and is inBut nature a good tree, ie moral. But if the roots do not send nutrietns to the rest of the tree then it is defective. If a human being has not achieved a sense of morality, then he is defective. This knowledge becomes liberating.
     The process of developing morality can produce anger. But if you can regard this as a defect, then one may be able to deal with the anger. Appreciation may help you deal with these issues. This allows you to see both sides of an issue and helps one confront the issue.
     There is a biological basis to morality. We human beings with our strong tendency to generousity but also strong self  interest develop conflict between these two sides of our personality. Appreciation may be able to help us see both sides of these conflicts. We also can realize that we don't need to solve this conflict quickly. But in the end we can't survive without going through the personal process of discovery of morality. If there are no guidelines (such as of religion) this process will take longer but we will still get there.
     Members of the group came up with these questions: If morality is an individual process, how are we to think of someone like Hitler? How can a group of people who all seem moral  strongly hold such different positions?Appreciation may help discern between these different opinions. Thinking about Foot's book helped Nic add appreciation to his definition of morality.
     Morality preceeds biology and maybe part of consciousness.
     As regards Hitler, members of the group reminded us that some people say Hitler put into action what some people dream of doing. We all may be only one step away from being a Hitler. Appreciation dims certitude. Appreciation drives out fear. Just remember to go to appreciation.