Arquivo para November 22nd, 2024
Bad religion and the virtues
22
Nov
Contemporary philosophy oscillates between
definitions of ethics and morality, with morality seen as a reduction to the morality of customs, lacking a depth of virtues and true religiosity.
The three theological virtues have been lost: faith, hope and charity, which must be “infused” by God, are confused with the religiosity of fortune-tellers and material goods, hope becomes a kind of positive thinking and behavioral feelings animated by some “coach” and charity, some superficial kindness such as pity, mercy and social aid.
The so-called cardinal virtues are prudence, run over by a world driven by impulses, justice which has become pure political manipulation, fortitude confused with physical or political strength and temperance present in very few situations and people, we live in times of anger.
A rare contemporary philosopher to deal with the subject was Philippa Foot, who died in 2010 at the age of 90. Despite her name, she was British and responsible for the resurgence of “virtue ethics”.
Foot did not abandon the classics, but re-read them for modern times. She believed that morality should be understood in terms of virtues of character, rather than just rules and consequences of actions.
Among her works, she modernized Aristotle’s ethical theory (Nicomachean Ethics) into a contemporary view of the world, showing that it can compete with popular theories such as deontological ethics and utilitarian ethics (that focused on goods, for example, present in religions).
She elaborated and discussed the so-called Tram dilemma (Foot, 1978, see figure), also addressed by other contemporary philosophers such as the famous John Rahls, also extensively analyzed by Judith Jarvis Thomson and more recently by Peter Unger.
The dilemma is simple: the valet must analyze the “lesser evil” where on one line he would run over one person and on another several, in a streetcar that is out of control and cannot stop.
The hope variant is a version of the dilemma considered by Daniel Zubiria, where there is a 50% chance of the derailed train saving all the people and not opting for either track, a similar argument is that of Jonah Barnaby.
The problem is interesting because it necessarily falls into the theological virtues.
Regarding faith, there is only one possible argument: prayer, which is inalienable from religious thought, it is not an exercise in rhetoric, logical and emotional maneuvers, it must be based exclusively on the relationship with God, so the utilitarian or deontological relationship is dispensable since it is theo-ontological: “my Father’s house is a house of prayer” (Lk 19,46).
Philippa Foot, (1978) The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect in Virtues and Vices. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
