Text 4
We assumed ethics needed the seal of certainty, else it was non-rational. And certainty was to be produced by a deductive model: the correct actions were derivable from classical first principles or a hierarchical ranked pantheon of principles. This model, though, is bankrupt.
I suggest we think of ethics as analogous to language usage. There are no univocal rules of gram mar and style which uniquely determine the best sentence for a particular situation. Nor is language usage universalizable. Although a sentence or phrase is warranted in one case, it does not mean it is automatically appropriate in like circumstances. Nonetheless, language usage is not subjective.
This should not surprise us in the least. All ’intellectual pursuits are relativistic in just these senses. Political science, psychology, chemistry, and physics are not certain, but they are not subjective either. As I see it, ethical inquiry proceed like this: we are taught
A. can only be acquired after suffering loss.
B. often generates unacceptable consequences.
C. is cultivated and developed with personal growth.
D. is too abstract to be of any practical value.
Text 4
We assumed ethics needed the seal of certainty, else it was non-rational. And certainty was to be produced by a deductive model: the correct actions were derivable from classical first principles or a hierarchical ranked pantheon of principles. This model, though, is bankrupt.
I suggest we think of ethics as analogous to language usage. There are no univocal rules of gram mar and style which uniquely determine the best sentence for a particular situation. Nor is language usage universalizable. Although a sentence or phrase is warranted in one case, it does not mean it is automatically appropriate in like circumstances. Nonetheless, language usage is not subjective.
This should not surprise us in the least. All ’intellectual pursuits are relativistic in just these senses. Political science, psychology, chemistry, and physics are not certain, but they are not subjective either. As I see it, ethical inquiry proceed like this: we are taught
A. we try to reevaluate our previously held beliefs as we grow older.
B. we refute some moral principles only after we find them inconsistent.
C. we acquire a sense of right and wrong from our real life lessons.
D. we become mature through ignoring our inherited unselfish tendencies.
Text 2
What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly
impossible. How could such extremely complex influences pass from the mother to the child There is no connection between their nervous system. Even the blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. An emotional shock to the mother will affect her child, because it changes the activity of her glands and so the chemistry of her blood. Any chemical change in the mother’s blood will,affect the child ’ for better or worse. But we can not see how a liking for mathematics or poetic genius can be dissolved in blood and produce a similar liking or genius in the child.
In our discussion of instincts we saw that there was reason to believe that whatever we inherit must be of some very simple sort rather than any complicated or very definite kind o
A. surely become musician
B. mostly become a poet
C. possibly become a teacher
D. become a'musician on the condition that all these factors are organized around music
Text 2 What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible. How could such extremely complex influences pass from the mother to the child There is no connection between their nervous system. Even the blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. An emotional shock to the mother will affect her child, because it changes the activity of her glands and so the chemistry of her blood. Any chemical change in the mother’s blood will,affect the child ’ for better or worse. But we can not see how a liking for mathematics or poetic genius can be dissolved in blood and produce a similar liking or genius in the child. In our discussion of instincts we saw that there was reason to believe that whatever we inherit must be of some very simple sort rather than any complicated or very definite kind of behavior. It is certai
A. everything from his mother
B. a knowledge of mathematics
C. a rather general ability that we call intelligence
D. her mother's musical ability
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