EP
Copyright © 2006 by Kevin Sharpe. All rights reserved
In process.
A Proposal for:
by
Kevin Sharpe
Many systems of
morality throw themselves at us: conservative religious where we can’t do this
and we have to do that, to open liberalism where we should love everyone else
and seek our own fulfillment. In between, advertisements tell us to eat
such-and-such and clean with so-and-so. Political, law enforcement,
bureaucratic, and corporate power structures require that we behave in
specified ways. And popular opinion requires we agree to war if we are truly
patriotic.
Not only is all this
confusing but, if we aren’t at the moment seduced by some moral slant, there
seems no basis on which to decide between the truth of the claims. They all
throw themselves at us with an ‘it is so’-ness in which they each think
themselves starkly obvious. How are we to make moral decisions on a daily basis
unless it’s by automatic and un-thought-out pilot? The commonly held truth of
certain religious absolutes such as the existence and nature of God has ceased
to be commonly held, and nothing has taken its place as a basis for a generally
shared morality.
Not many of us feel
deep down, however, that we are awash in a sea of relativism. This book
contends that we share a number of instinctive moral ways to behave and that,
though vague and undeveloped, they could form the basis for a full and worked
out morality. These behavioral tendencies we inherit, but what we do with them
is up to us consciously and unconsciously.
The corpses near me, crawling with lice, did not bother me.
In
Only the steps of passing guards could rouse me from my dreams; or perhaps it would be a call to the sick-bay or to collect a newly arrived supply of medicine for my hut consisting of perhaps five or ten tablets of aspirin, to last for several days for fifty patients. I collected them and then did my rounds, feeling the patients’ pulses and giving half-tablets to the serious cases.
To survive in the camps, Frankl practiced his doctoring, he
thought of his wife, and he tried to reconstruct his scientific manuscript the
A natural morality, a set of universal principles present is in all societies and religions. Frankl’s experience and writing illustrate one. He quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche:
[The person] who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.
To survive and live life to its fullest, we need meaning and purpose. Can we generalize Frankl’s observations to a lesson about life for everyone?
Science provides an answer. When absorbed in an activity and unaware of ourselves—when we garden, sew, construct a model airplane, play the piano, paint, or a myriad other things—we experience “flow.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi arrived at the idea of flow when he studied artists who spent many hours immersed in their painting or sculpting. They worked as if nothing mattered except their creation. They labored for reward that lay intrinsically in the work itself, not for external marks of praise, promotion, or money. When we flow in an activity that fully engages our skills, we feel exhilarated and endued with meaning and purpose. We become less self-conscious and less aware of time passing. Flow allows us to bear almost anything else going on in their lives, including the horrors of a concentration camp.
Research on flow
supports the principle proposed by Frankl, but this book discusses many others.
They show what behaviors in what circumstances will usually and naturally lead
to success and happiness. The studies that support such principles also show
that many require modification and apply only in specific circumstances. Some
principles start as anecdotes but, with scientific support and modification,
emerge as universally germane and therefore sure to work with each of us.
Science and spiritual
wisdom come together in this work to produce an exploration into the nature of
human existence and behavior.
A natural system of
morality has evolved into humans. Rather than a deterministic code of ethics
based on ‘if-then’ statements, actual guides for living are ambiguous,
requiring a balance of experience, thought, and reflective action. Religious
practice and scripture illuminated these areas in the past. Today, science,
especially social psychology, investigates this morality.
Natural Morality
brings together issues such as locus of control, flow, in group-out group,
reciprocity, and empathy in the light of both theoretical questions concerning
the nature of morality and this research’s impact on day-to-day living. Its
audience includes the general educated lay, plus students and scholars of
religion and psychology.