Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Chapter 1 Frienship and the Moral Life

Friendship and the Moral Life:

“Friendships are not sought, they emerge.” “Warrenton was a school of friendship not because it sought to make us friends, but because it presented us with a purpose that made friendship possible.” P.3

“Warrenton was an argument which said to be human was to have a story to live and the task of our lifetime is to live so that we not only bring that story to completion, but to embody the fullness that story represents.” P.5

“Friendship is not only a good for the moral life, it is indispensable; there is simply no other way to come in touch with the goods that make us whole than through relationships with those who share them.” P.5

~Wadell begins by giving us an account of the school he attended and how friends were made from strangers through working for a shared purpose.

He then goes on to speak about this one time when he was a new professor one of his students approached him and was bold enough to say that he hated ethics. The reason that we hate Ethics and Morality is that we find in divisive “and how far apart we are on things we consider important” Although these matters may be avoided at all costs, one question cannot be overlooked and that is “How must our lives be shaped.” Socrates says that we should not focus on “what should I do” but “how shall I live”. This is the difference between quandary and virtue ethics. In quandary ethics, we are alone, adrift on an island of our own personal beliefs. This type of ethics also only addresses a small portion of our lives: the part in which we face a crisis. It does not call for a change in lifestyle, but a second’s worth of a decision. Quandary ethics prescribes that we create our own moralities. Virtue ethics calls for us to instead be faithful to a higher ideal and we are shaped by ethics, not the other way around. In virtue ethics, friendship is indispensable.

“Friendship is a fitting model for the moral life because it respects that the change of self necessary for wholeness is impossible apart from those relationships in which love for that wholeness can be shared” p.25

No comments: