Moral Philosophy & Being Good

Discussion of articles that appear in the magazine.

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Philosophy Now
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Moral Philosophy & Being Good

Post by Philosophy Now »

Charlie White asks, what’s the purpose of moral philosophy? Can it take us to a good place?

https://philosophynow.org/issues/146/Moral_Philosophy_and_Being_Good
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: Moral Philosophy & Being Good

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

From the link above;
Studying moral philosophy/ethics should enable us to become better people. It should give us the ability to understand the ways in which our thoughts and actions affect others, enabling us to think critically about how we can live the best lives possible. Moreover, we would hope that any moral philosophy we have studied would make us want to act well, even if we’re not always able to do so. If studying moral philosophy does not produce any of these results, then surely we must ask, what is the point of it?

Aristotle observes that musicians can only become musicians by playing musical instruments.
Just as we could reasonably question the purpose of learning music theory without ever picking up an instrument, we can also reasonably question the benefits of discussing ethical theories if this has no impact at all on any of our actions.
If theory is detached from practice, what is its purpose?
The above starting point of the article missed the very critical root element.

If a person lack musical intelligence [in the brain] [say 20/100] then no matter what theory or practice the person does, it is not going to help him to become a good or reasonable musician.
Even if a person with 40/100 musical intelligence and is able to learn and perform a musical instrument, he would easily lose interests and ability to play the instrument.

Thus what is most critical is the competence or skill that is inherent and active in the brain.

This article missed the brain factor in being morally good.

The effective approach to being morally good is to identify and acknowledge the existence of the specific neural set within the brain that is supporting one's natural spontaneous state to be being morally good.
I believe ALL humans are 'programmed' with an inherent potential to be morally good but it is not active in the majority % but only in a small % of individuals.
The task for humanity toward the future is to expedite the inherent moral impulse to increase the average moral intelligence.

Once the higher average moral intelligence is progressing we can be more effective with applying the theory to applied ethics in an dynamic optimal manner.
I believe the theory of ethics need to be independent in one sense and interdependent with the practical in another sense to ensure optimality of being good.
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