Candide is about what to do with a world that has evil in it as well as a real rip on philosophers and the clergy and the elites in Europe.
The evil thing has me thinking about our views of NATURE today. Nature documentaries and children's books always locate evil in the great white shark or the big bad wolf. But of course our modern, scientific point of view recognizes that dramatic ideas of good guys and bad guys are just human constructs. The wolf is no more evil than the mosquito -- both might be a problem for us but they are part of a large ecosystem. But NATURE has no moral framework. So where do we get this moral framework from. We seem to have a basic sense of FAIRNESS, but we know that life is not FAIR. But still we cling to it. Is that were GOD resides?
We get this "moral framework" from our ancestors who used to worship the sun and eat things to obtain "spirits". Within the last 2000 years or so, this has become known as religion. ALL religions set a framework for morals - what is right and what is wrong. We use the fact that life is not fair as "God testing us" or in some cases punishing us. We cling to this because as humans we have the idea of an after-life. To serve God, we become blessed with a pleasant post-life in heaven. To go against God, we are damned to hell. So no, nature does not have a moral framework, but we as people create our own to become "happy".
ReplyDeleteFair enough, but there are plenty of people who don't believe in an afterlife who lead moral lives and believe in social justice and fairness and so forth.
ReplyDeleteI think we cling to it because we want it. I personally do things fairly because I'd hope that someone would return the favor someday. I do not believe they will but hope that they would. I think we cling to it so that maybe someday we or our children could live in a fair and just world.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say where it comes from though. It is possible that it is where God resides.
I think we cling to thinking everything is fair because thats what we all want. We dont want things to be unfair. Its like we want it so bad and just avoid the fact that everything is unfair. I think that it came from God who thought that the world was going to be fair and perfect. I think we are just trying to make it happen and hope that if one person is fair that others will follow. I feel thats why parents teach thier children to be fair. To make the world a better place.
ReplyDelete-Courtney Lynch
I can see people still holding on to fairness over the thousands of years we have been alive because back in the paleolithic era the hunters and gatherers needed to work together to survive. So the way their whole life style was conducted was through fairness. I just think that this is one of the few things that remain in the human race that our ancestors gave us. Over time it has been fabricated in human morals. HUMAN NATURE has a moral framework and it is how we survived in this world for so long.
ReplyDeleteIn today's modern times we can survive without each other, but that doesn't mean we can stop being fair to one another. Our moral system would collapse and we humans wouldn't be living much longer after that.
I think that we get this moral framework from our ancestors and God. When it is our time to leave this life we want to end up in a happy place, like heaven, rather than in hell. It is just something that we have been brought up to believe in. We still cling to the idea of fairness even though life is not fair because we know life has its struggles and you cannot always win. Life throws obstacles at you to see how you will react the situations that we are faced with. God influences our reactions because we want to end up happy later in life.
ReplyDelete-Brooke Alukonis
I think all religions teach their own set of beliefs but not everyones religions are the same, and some people do not follow any religion. People believe in their own separate religions but everyone still has morals, and these morals may be the same for many people. We cling to the idea of fairness because most people were brought up that way. If people try and be fair they are only going to better the world and help themselves and others.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that we get this moral frame work from our ancestors. We all grew up with our parents telling us each and every day to treat others as how we would want to be treated. They would tell us to play fair and even today you hear parents telling their children that. We were taught about fairness since we were little and it has been passed down from generations to generations.
ReplyDelete-Jenn lee
I pretty much agree that we get this idea from our parents who teach us to do the right, and just thing. As kids we think the world is nice and happy-go-lucky but as we get older we learn that that's not the case. Even though we know the world isn't perfect, we'd like to believe it is which is why I still do nice things for people I don't know, or I'll smile to people or flash the peace sign sometimes, just because I feel like it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we cling to fairness because it is what we want, like some people have pointed out already. When something isn't fair to us we push it aside and put the blame on everyone but ourselves. We do as many nice things as we can for people but the first time someone doesn't do something nice for us we tend to believe "well that's not fair" and stop doing nice gestures. Although I don't believe this totally lies within religion. People can believe that we live and we die, and that's it. The good things we do won't necessarily get us into a new realm when we die, we just do nice things because they make us feel good. Our parents teach us right from wrong, as well as our teachers and even our friends. You can have morals and be very religious, but you can also have a great set of morals and not believe anyone put them there for you but yourself. I don't think it's where "God resides" so much as where youre inner best feelings are. It just depends on your core beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI think that our religious beliefs are a result of our species thoughts on fairness. If something bad happens, we need to justify it somehow. Therefore, we believe in such things as Karma, Heaven, and Hell. It is a result of our attempt to understand much more than we have the ability to; we always need to know why. We need to have an ultimate goal, otherwise what would all of the unfairness be for? So, yes, this is where God resides.
ReplyDeleteHaley Govoni
ReplyDeleteNature has no moral framework because they have no knowledge of their own existence. They simply know their needs and how to respond to those needs. Humans however can plan for the future, and think about the past. We can also recognize our existence and what it means to the world and to us. I believe that fairness is achieved due to a persons conscious. An internal or taught feeling that something is either right or wrong. Life is not always unfair and that is why we cling to it, maybe it's the balance between the two. I am not a very religious person so to me i look at it like Aristotle would, life unfairness is just something that happens. I believe it happens to teach us lessons which we can ultimately grow and learn from. This unfairness could stem not necessarily from god but from peoples actions and reactions.
Allison Van Riper
ReplyDeleteThere is no moral framework within nature because it is something that as humans we project unto our surroundings. We make up our own moral framework according to religion, beliefs held by others around us, and our own moral compass. Fairness has nothing to do with God or our own doubts about why things happen to us. Fairness comes from a persons own beliefs and their belief of what they are doing is right or wrong and if they will be punished for it eventually. People hold onto the belief that life is fair or unfair for their own reasons. God does not have a part in any of this because if people do believe that God is really running the show then why would life need to be fair or unfair at all? No, God or any other religious figure acts as a moral compass and only a person can determine which way they want to head and then that determines if they think a circumstance is fair or unfair.
Professor Albert, you said that, "there are plenty of people who don't believe in an afterlife who lead moral lives and believe in social justice and fairness and so forth." I agree, many of those people do exist. An idea of why they still believe in morals, justice, etc. could be because of their parents or other ancestors being religious and raising their children with those morals. Maybe over time the religious ideas of worship, heaven, divinity, etc. were lost, but the morals remained true. That is why I believe the ideas of goodness and morals exist regardless of personal faith.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all where God resides is a religious aspect, which all of us can't understand. Morals and Ethics started when people started to make social contracts. By contracts one person would give something for another. In the past we gave up rights for a government, and then our children were born into that government and automatically given those same contracts. By nature anyone can do anything whether it is right or wrong, but it is society that decides that. If a person is in that society and they do something that they do not like or against their law they will be outcasted or jailed. Ethics and Morals are not the same for every society.
ReplyDeleteNature might not have a moral frame work because it cant think for itself, but as humans we have to draw the line somewhere in life. We use moral framework in nature to portray where we feel the line from whats fair and whats not, and what's good and evil. peole use god as a sense of comfort, they have someone to look upon them unlike nature, but its not the same for everyone.
ReplyDeleteWhere God is concerned it is a religious belief and a choice for people to live a certain way. To live your life serving him and by searving him you have the frame work to make the decisions in your life moralally and Ethically. Religion is like a study guide to the way you should follow the steps through life. It gives you guide lines to follow. If there is no religion in your life you still have morals that are set and instilled in you through your anscesters,family,and your up bringing.We all don't have the same set of morals which causes such a seperation between us all.
ReplyDeleteReligion and morality are two completely seperate human constructs. They do however share the same roots, and have a great deal to do with eachother. I mean this in the sense that both religion and morality focus on the core concepts of 'good' and 'bad'. Where the difference is in the sense that morality can be seen as more tangible and real, where religion is beyond that. The idea of faith is imbued in religion, but not nessecarily in morality. these concepts developed very differently in different regions and time periods, and these differences can be seen in different cultures that have different religous views, and different ideas of morality.
ReplyDeleteWe all seem to have a basic sense of fairness, and most know that life isn't always fair. I cling to God because he has given me the opportunity to live. I believe that is where he resides. I was brought up believing in God, and although there is the occasional bump in the road, I have learned to deal. He never guaranteed a utopia. I believe this is where I got my moral framework from.
ReplyDeleteMy moral framework comes from the way I was raised. I say this because i was taught right from wrong by my parents and they always taught me to be honest and respectful, and use my common sense. For example certain animals raised themselves and they do anything to survive. So when they do somethings that are not ethical they don't look back on it they continue on to do anything to survive.
ReplyDeleteI believe that morality comes from your surroundings. You can be taught right and wrong, but you also see what people around you are doing. People can "rub off on you" in either a good or bad way, but only you can choose how you want to live. Parents can teach their children right and wrong, but when the children grow up, or go off to college, their moral framework is up to them. Religion and moral framework are two different things. Someone can have good morals without being religious at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree that morality comes from our enviorment and how we were raised. Yes, we are greatly influenced by the people that surround us. However, I do also believe that our morals also come from our souls. As corny as that sounds, we are all individuals, we connect meaning through our knowledge and passion. Thus, morality is not only social but also greatly emotional and personal.
ReplyDeleteI believe also that yes morality come from how you are brought up and influenced. But i also believe that anyone has a chance to go off the wrong path so to speak. In the end your morals come from you and what you want to believe what is right or wrong. Your parents can only influence you so much at some point you stop listening to what they say and fend for yourself and hope you make the right choices.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the dramatic ideas of good guys and bad guys aren't just a human construct, but a natural one. It's true the wolf may not be more evil than the mosquito, but in our eyes and quite possibly the eyes of its prey, the wolf is practically evil. Nature does in fact have a moral framework which is biologically programmed on to us.
ReplyDeleteNature is harsh and everywhere. To live in it you must survive it. "The barrenness of one-quarter part of the world, the numberless diseases to which we are subject, the multitude of strong and hostile animals by which we are surrounded, oblige us to be constantly on alert in body and in mind to guard against the various forms of evil."(Voltaire,p.37) The perception of evil and self-righteousness is the core of survival and it is this perception of evil that drives us to battle against it or to run away. Why would a mother place herself between a creature and her infant at the risk of her own life if she didn't perceive it as an act of evil? Do you think she said to herself "we he just needs to eat"? I don't know but I doubt it. The ability to perceive morality is built in, but it is through our experiences that we learn to recognize it. What hurts us makes us stronger or at least smarter.
We, as human beings, are a social species much like primates and elephants. All of which naturally form communities for protection and successful acquisition of physical and mental sustenance. Every man/woman, to each his/her own is morally just, though it may not always reflect modern society's standard of morality. As far as the world is concerned, majority rules and its non abiding citizens stigmatized. As for religion, God is the metaphysical embodiment of a majority accepted and established standard of morality not unlike government law.