Compos Mentis

Ask, and ye shall recieve

Or more appropriately, complain on your blog and you shall recieve. I'm sitting here at 11:30, practically the beginning of my evening, and I have nothing that I need to do... at least nothing I need to do that I can do until morning. I've been sitting here listening to classical music, reading a book, and I thought that you guys deserved an update since you were willing to listen to me whine. Anyway, I've been thinking.
Our philosophy course this semester is Ethics, and I am enjoying it; it's one of the first times we've been able to actually "practice" philosophy, use reasonable methods to try to consider the way things are. I've thought about these things on my own before, and I have to admit that I've not come to any real conclusions yet. But it's always good to put your thoughts on... well, not exactly paper, but something more permanent than memory. If I start making no sense, feel free to either ignore me or slap me around in the comments.
First. I make a distinction between ethics and morality, one that is different from most people's distinction. I consider people in two ways: as individuals and as part of the herd. Individuals, I believe, make their moral decisions because of their conscience, whatever that may mean. It is internal, though, not forced upon them. People as part of the whole, however, follow laws. These are ethical rules that relate to the working of the whole rather than the individual. So: morality, individual conscience; ethics, rules of the whole.
This solves a number of problems. Most people who think about these things (poor sods) divide into two camps: consequentialists, who think that the outcome is the most important part, and... er, well, nonconsequentialists, who for the most part think that doing the right thing has intrinsic value. Both sides often go head to head because, while no one wants to admit that they're wrong, everyone seems to think that both sides are kind of important, and it's really hard to reconcile them. But me, if people can be seen as part of the whole (and that's a whole 'nother shebang, but take my word for it) then it's the consequences that matter. As far as it concerns the individual, it is the act of doing the right action that matters.
I know, the wording of the last sentence is awkward, but it's on purpose. I don't believe anymore that someone's intent matters. I used to, but now I don't. Well, I do, but in a different way. I've picked up an idea from some people who disagreed with me. They said that if someone claims to be doing something for a good reason, then they are not doing something to be good, but only for the credit. I don't think about it in those kind of cynical terms, but I have noticed that anytime you consider why you do something, you run into trouble; that is, you are simply doing things for your own good, and that's no good at all. Pretty much any justification other than "it's the right thing to do" leads me into trouble.
So, I shouldn't do things because it's the law, or because the person I am helping will help me later. What, then, is my motivation? It'll sound corny, but it's not. Love. If you are doing something out of love, then you aren't thinking about why you're doing it. It's just the right thing to do. This is unconditional, Godly love I'm talking about; the Big Love as a churchmate used to put it. This is also why humans fail at being moral a lot of the time; they're not capable of that kind of love.
Ethics is different, but that's really another post.
Anyway, tell me what you think.

posted by Emmett @ 23:25 3 Comments

It's raining, it's pouring...

I have discovered a flaw in my plans. You guys know that I couldn't decide which major I was going to get, history or philosophy, so I decided to do both. After that, I took Calc III from Doc. Stone and realized how much I enjoyed higher level mathematics (it's a lot more fun than the basic level stuff, trust me) so now I'm a math major as well. So far, no problem. As my engineering and biology friends love to tell me, none of those are nearly as hard as their major, and this is true. But, believe it or not, three majors is a lot of work, so I have to compensate by dropping something. I am playing guitar for about an hour a day, and there's no way I'm giving that up. I go running occasionally, and for the sake of my sanity, I can't give that up. What does go is my chance to read books that I want to read. Back in the summer I could go through about a dozen books a week. Now, it's more like a book every two months.
It makes me sad. You all know this, but I love books. I think I have learned more by the books I have read outside of class than everything that I have learned from school. I try to keep up but I simply do not have enough time anymore.
On the other hand, I love the classes I am taking; you can tell by how much I complain about them. The more I grumble, the more I actually like it. I don;t know why this is. I love history, and the history of Eastern Europe is like the Mecca of pure history. Trying to keep straight everything that happened, what they thought happened, how that effects what their neighbors thought happened, how their prime ministers were executed, all need to be untangled in multiple ways if we are to understand the way people work and think in this region.
Discrete structures is pretty much the perfect math class, because we haven't dealt at all with numbers. It's all logic, and abstract at that, despite the class description. I could never do physics even when I knew the math because it was far too utilitarian, and discrete structures makes calculus look like a story problem.
Ethics is just beautiful. No more needs to be said.
But I love and miss the challenge of tackling a book that makes me stretch beyond my own beliefs. Arrgh.
It's raining here, and that makes me think of England, where I first came to love books. That's really why I'm melancholy. I'll be there next year, studying abroad (I promise to update as faithfully as I do now) but that knowledge just makes me miss it more. Plus I had Indian food today, which again made me think of England.
I am going to go do my homework, listen to some... Chopin, I think, and then try to get a head start on some book. And then I'll be back to sorts.

posted by Emmett @ 11:10 2 Comments