Metaphysics & ethics

transcript

MetaphysicsandEthics

Recall Game Quiz questions:1. Ethics isa. the study of knowledge.b. the study of the nature of reality.c. the study of human behavior.d. the study of right and wrong.e. the study of what is socially acceptable.2. Goodness is a. that which brings happiness and pleasure.b. excellence.c. harmony and creativity.d. whatever I say it is.e. defined by God.f. A combination of a, b and c.

Goodness (bonum)…a. that which brings happiness and pleasure.b. excellence.c. harmony and creativity.How do we systematically study what is

good, & what it entails?

Metaphysics=philosophy of being as being.

‘Crises of our times’• Is it really true that there has come to be a break between

man's behavior and the guiding principles which he supposedly holds? How do we define ‘freedom’? Are we free when we choose what is bad? Or is freedom rather the choice of the good? Do we see the proliferation of non-truth, or at least the non-upholding of the truth? Which truth? or for whom? many people ask. Have we begun believing that our intellect is incapable of reaching, by itself, the most fundamental truths about human life? Has beauty been 'subjectivized'? What really is beauty in the metaphysical sense? Is what is ugly or grotesque or macabre or monstrous beautiful?

‘Crises of our times’• Let us review these crises in

relation to the so-called transcendental properties of being, the perspective from which I prefer to consider culture.

• (I borrow from Prof. Tomás Melendo of the University of Málaga) http://opusdeitoday.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=226&p=473&hilit=Metaphysics#p473

Transcendental Properties of

ONE(UNITY)UNUM

TRUE(TRUTH)VERUM

GOOD(GOOD)BONUM

BEAUTIFUL(BEAUTY)

PULCHRUM

UNITY• With regard to UNITY: Is there a

break between people’s behavior and their (supposed) guiding principles?

TRUTH• With regard to the TRUTH: Is there

a concordance between what people say, think, or do and reality? What do the mass media present?

GOOD• With regard to the GOOD: What

really is GOOD? Is there an absolute good? Or do I ask in each case: “What is good for me?”

GOOD• Am I right in observing that the

attitude of our contemporaries with regard to the good, freedom, happiness and ways of conceiving their self-fulfillment has come to be focused on: the indiscriminate exaltation of the "me", and the limitless reign of one's own pleasures?

BEAUTY• With regard to BEAUTY: Is what is

gross, grotesque, macabre, monstrous beautiful ? What is proper to human dignity?

• This age of the image, at times bereft of meaning, is characterized, among other things, by the following

• (1) On the one hand, the unfocused getting accustomed, on the part of many of our fellowmen, to a bombardment of impressions, frequently heart-rending, in all the areas of our sensibility: from the monotonous chewing of gum or distracting one's tongue with more or less exotic foods or drinks, all the way to the alternating of deafening sounds, images and changing of lights during those moments of recreation... or even in those attempted moments of work, all the way to the exposure to strong sensations --the liking for what is terrifying, violent or macabre--, which temporarily awaken and activate their emotionalism; and …

• (2) on the other hand, the extent to which that coming together of incitements, which come to be indispensable, contributes to making their intellects lethargic and, as a consequence, to an almost endemic boredom of so many people within and outside of the school and work environment: a tedium which, as philosophers like Kierkegaard or Camus and psychiatrists like Frankl would comment, constitutes one of the most devastating plagues of our present world and one of the key elements for understanding those apparently intelligible actions of some of our contemporaries and for explaining the absence of authentic growth --of cultural development-- in a good number of them.

What really is the problem?

• In relation to the ONE: Is it supposed to be: What persons, things, institutions really ARE?Or what we ‘feel’, ‘think’, ‘desire’ that they be?

• In relation to the TRUE: The truth-in-itself has come to be replaced by what I think: the ‘truth-for-me’, the ‘truth for each one’.

• In relation to the GOOD: The good as such has come to be replaced by: ‘I like’, ‘I am interested in’, ‘this pleases me’.

• In relation to the BEAUTIFUL: From genuine beauty to the cult of what is ugly, grotesque, macabre, monstrous.

Culture = ‘aspiration towards excellence’

• Understood in this light, we can therefore zero in on a solid and nuclear aspect of culture: the aspiration towards excellence. I wish to consider that definition which says that something is associated with culture to the extent that it contributes towards man's leading up to the fullness of his being. Otherwise, that thing's qualification as cultural --no matter how much it leaves a mark in man or how much it comes into contact with him-- will be the result of an impoverished or a deceitful or a fraudulent use of the word culture.

• Thus, the ability to distinguish what ought to be accepted as "culture" depends on an adequate conception of the human person. Among the many possible conceptions, the human person’s characterization as a "metaphysical entity" is suggested, that is: as someone who is in intimate relation with the attributes that reality possesses, precisely for being real, viz.: unity, truth, good and beauty; or better yet, as a being oriented by vocation towards making present and incarnating in himself such properties, in such a way that he grows and perfects himself to the extent that he gets involved with and lives in the one, the true, the good and the beautiful, appreciated in their intrinsic value and elevated to their highest expressions.

The risk of “having” or “doing” taking precedence over “BEING”

• Ours is a time of continual movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of "doing for the sake of doing". We must resist this temptation by trying "to be" before trying "to do"

Some ‘metaphysical’ questions worth investigating:

• With regard to UNITY: Value of the Firm vs. Value of the Human Person (‘Utility theory’ in Economics); Student’s Perception of and conformity to a Public Image of the Student Archetype; What does “Feminine Genius” truly mean?; Dignity of the Person as Projected in TV Ads and Noontime Shows.

• With regard to the TRUTH: • Mass Media’s Influence on the Culture

of Philippine Elections;• Lifestyle advertising; • Leaders Promoting Culture and

Defending Truth; • The Use of Marketing in the

Promotion of True Culture.

• With regard to the GOOD: • Creating a Socially Responsible

Business Culture (Corporate Social Responsibility);

• What really is a good leader?• Prevailing Ideologies in the Recent Ad

Congresses; • Music/Music Videos and Children.

• With regard to BEAUTY: • Aesthetics in Print & OHM Media: A

Metaphysical Analysis; • Media as Fashion Setter; • Is the macabre/violent beautiful?• How ‘ethical’ is Cosmetic Surgery.

APPEAL• Handa ba tayo, sa pamamagitan ng ating BA

198, na buong tapang na ipagtanggol ang PAGKAKAISA?

• Handa ba tayo, sa pamamagitan ng ating BA 198, na buong tapang na ipagtanggol ang KATOTOHANAN?

• Handa ba tayo, sa pamamagitan ng ating BA 198, na buong tapang na ipagtanggol ang KABUTIHAN?

• Handa ba tayo, sa pamamagitan ng ating BA 198, na buong tapang na ipagtanggol ang KAGANDAHAN?

Now: Do you understand why the GOOD, in the Aristotelian sense, cannot be separated from a metaphysical understanding of GOOD (along with unity, truth & beauty)?

Metaphysics & ethics

Spiritual