Hick is known as a pluralist. That captures the point I'm trying to make about there being a 'core insight' that is carried in the various traditions - but without merging them all into a kind of new-age syncretism. They're agreeing AND disagreeing about something real. But whatever that reality is, is out-of-scope for what we currently understand as science. — Wayfarer
But what underwrites virtue? — Wayfarer
The notion that it makes sense to ask why one ought be virtuous, to require a reason for being virtuous, is muddled, since being virtuous is exactly doing what one ought to do. — Banno
Like it or not, we decide what is virtuous. — Banno
Ethics changes the world to fit our ideas; hence ethics is not found, nor could we find something that underwrites ethics. ( — Banno
I don't think you, or any one else, can say what it is. That's what it means for something to be ineffable. If I am wrong in this then all you need do is tell me what this "core insight" is. — Banno
The "perennial philosophy" is in this context defined as a doctrine which holds [1] that as far as worth-while knowledge is concerned not all men are equal, but that there is a hierarchy of persons, some of whom, through what they are, can know much more than others; [2] that there is a hierarchy also of the levels of reality, some of which are more "real," because more exalted than others; and [3] that the wise men of old have found a "wisdom" which is true, although it has no "empirical" basis in observations which can be made by everyone and everybody; and that in fact there is a rare and unordinary faculty in some of us by which we can attain direct contact with actual reality--through the praj~naa (paaramitaa) of the Buddhists, the logos of Parmenides,(30) the sophia of Aristotle(31) and others, Spinoza's amor dei intellectualis, Hegel's Vernunft, and so on; and [4] that true teaching is based on an authority which legitimizes itself by the exemplary life and charismatic quality of its exponents. — Edward Conze, Buddhist Philosophy and it's European Parallels
And was he right? What do you think? — Banno
There will doubtless be folk too enamoured with external authority to see that the decision is theirs. — Banno
Even if one presumed that some given creed is the indubitable word of god, and that it sets out what we God proposes we ought do, it remains open to us to reject that proposal. — Banno
In any event, is this not a nod to subjectivism? If the world goes mad and finds virtue in rape, is not rape virtuous? — Hanover
As far as the rational nature of ethics, I believe that is writ large in the entire Western philosophical corpus - Aristotle, Plato, and Kant, to name only a few. — Wayfarer
Doesn't the way this response closes off the conversation bother you? — Banno
While our philosophical forefathers might show how one might think, they cannot make our decision for us. — Banno
...forecloses... — Wayfarer
But we value philosophers because they have insights that we do not. It's not a matter of slavishly following authority, but also not a matter of rejecting the insights of the tradition because it's an authority. — Wayfarer
Even if one presumed that some given creed is the indubitable word of god, and that it sets out what we God proposes we ought do, it remains open to us to reject that proposal. — Banno
So who will do this for you? Something else for you to decide.
The directionality of ethical considerations will not relieve you of such responsibilities. — Banno
Are not some cultures insane by the standards of others? Can we demonstrate that we have access to virtues that transcend human perspectives? — Tom Storm
but your conscience leaves you no doubt as to the immorality of it. — Hanover
I'm not deciding from scratch, but something mysterious is guiding me. — Hanover
Ok, so what is this "core insight"? — Banno
I suspect whatever reservation you have in condemning rape in other nations exists only in your inability to articulate a reason why your cultural values should predominate, but your conscience leaves you no doubt as to the immorality of it. — Hanover
The Buberian I-It versus I-Thou dynamic — ZzzoneiroCosm
(A & B) v (C & D)
...for a single criteria; andA religion must satisfy criteria (A)
...for multiple criteria. Whereas a Polythetic definitions woful look like:A religion must satisfy criteria (A & B & C)
... for some criteria A,B,C...A religion must satisfy criteria (A & B) v (C & D)
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