Thursday, April 1, 2010

Moral perfectionism

The method I use for deriving my ethical principles is this.

First, I imagine what level of perfection I would achieve in my behavior toward other human beings if I were Socrates, Jesus, or any truly profound philosopher. Then I strive to behave this way all the time.

Second, I imagine what level of perfection I would achieve if I were speaking to a prince, a pope or a philosopher. Then I strive to speak this way all the time.

Today’s ethics is Kant lite. We acknowledge there are rules to follow. But everything else is left up to arbitrary whim. We’re not striving for perfection. We’re not striving for virtue.

Moral progress has succeeded not in transforming virtue into what Emerson would have adored, the full recognition of the unique genius of each person, but rather in eliminating it from our vocabulary. If everyone can have his own form of virtue, what's the point of using the word? Is it just to lecture others on our virtues—and on their vices?

But is it really any more abhorrent for someone who has thought a great deal about virtue to talk about virtue than for someone who has thought a great deal about chemistry to talk about chemistry? If the term “virtue” turns out to be obsolete, then it will be a history lecture. Even then it is useful.

An Emersonian form of virtue would demand that I recognize the genius of each person, and strive to help him develop it. If the world were to adopt such an ethic, the factory owner would no longer be able to direct his workers. The university would no longer be able to crank out workers for the intellectual factories.

The problem with Emerson’s form of virtue, like all the obsolete ones, is that it’s "impractical." But have we forgotten what the prophet of Capitalism Herself said? “The evaluation of an action as ‘practical’ depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.” We are striving for prosperity rather than virtue, and we don’t much like to talk about that. So we have dismissed the very idea of virtue as impractical.