The fourth way, is more a simulation than a “way.” It is not a form of embodiment at all, and therefore does not generate golden rule effect as a spontaneous offshoot. There is a certain satisfaction as well to using the most ancient but enduring epigrams of ethics, such as the golden rule, to create the most cutting-edge theoretical forms. The most profound and dynamic though system in traditional Chinese culture, has for centuries exerted great influences on China's economy, politics and culture. In small-group interactions what would normally be tolerated as diversity of opinion and practice can be legitimately identified as problematic instead. “Love the good with your whole mind, your whole heart and your whole strength,” then you will love your neighbor as yourself, and also treat her as you’d wish to be treated by her. If a kind of imaginative role-playing is contemplated, one need only conjure up images of community elders frowning or fawning over a variety of choice options and everyday practices. And a valid ethics is designed to serve human nature, even as it strives to improve it. What if I am killing myself and you supply my habit, as I did when I bought Claudia cigarettes at the airport duty free shop? Yet, gathered around this law-like “given,” in James’s remarks are reams of psychological testimony on putative “conversion” and “visitation” experiences wrought by divinities (Lect. 11). Interpersonally, the rule calls for a bizarre response, an almost obtuse or incomprehensible one. Ply the rule in the handling of complex and nuanced problems of complex institutions and it is at sea. The last word comes through a critical comparison of these conventions, in experience, with our proclivities and values. This is because it does not direct a specific type of action that can be morally evaluated in itself. The principle of treating others as you want to be treated is seen in Chinese folk religion in the tradition of making offerings to spirits in hopes of receiving blessings from beneficent ones and mollifying malicious ones. Thus, do nice things by consulting community standards would proceduralize a rule to generate more specific action directives. Chinese government, steeped in the Confucian ethic, was, by the arrival of the British, mostly a corrupt and sclerotic despotism, devoid of human rights or the ability to defend itself or its cultural values. The rule should not be used where those around you let them happen or can’t see it happen. Their morally relevant qualities cannot compete in importance with our other personal features. At least it might move him to abandon this sort of practice. And Confucius explicitly depicted the “shu” component as human-heartedness, akin to compassion. Notice that “the standard way” among philosophers is simply to claim that “as you would have” means consent or rational preference without sufficient argument or justification. I don’t like it; it’s not OK with me.” The abuser responds, “It seems like you like it. But as philosophers say, the logics of good and reason in Utilitarianism cannot help but extend to maximization—it is simply irrational, all things considered, to pursue less of a good thing when one can acquire more good at little effort. Confucius's principles have commonality with Chinese tradition and belief. Leading with the word “Do” does not necessarily signal the rule’s demand for action anymore than parents saying to teenagers, “Be good,” when they go on a date. "Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself." Other rules seem reachable somewhere down the road and may slowly become an ideal to work toward, walking a mile in others’ moccasins perhaps, while an additional class of rules only gets our salute from afar—it is wildly out of reach. And is there a more “Christian spirit” of charity and service available? What is the relationship between the Golden Rule, war and nuclear weapons? The same feature that makes the golden rule gleam—its idealism—has dimmed its prospects for influence. To treat ourselves ethically is a kind of metaphor since only one person is involved in the exchange, and the exchange can only be indirect. Li is much broader than religious observance because it attempts to sanctify all of life. This emphasis eases the rule’s “burdens of obligation,” which are already more manageable than expected in the rule’s primary role, socializing children. Is the Golden Rule a good basis for parenting? Chance or fate can be manipulated if you do the right things and avoid the wrong things, and the Golden Rule is a guide to that. Now consider a fourth avenue, much more common to everyday ethics. If not, when and how? But it remains this sort of special principle. Any community member can comply simply by knowing which reciprocity practices are approved or frowned on. Like breathing, that is, the rule has an involuntary and voluntary component in one’s life. Confucius spoke of hopelessly searching in vain, his whole life for one person who could practice Kung-shu for one single day. If so, what are they? I may choose, wish or want that you would treat me with great kindness and generosity, showing me an unselfish plume of altruism. The same can be said with identifying, role-taking or learning from another’s type of experience. Karl Popper wrote: “The golden rule is a good standard which is further improved by doing unto others, wherever reasonable, as they want to be done by” (The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. This is what philosophical research on the matter turns up. “Love your neighbor as yourself” seems in this class, along with, “turn the other cheek” or “give others anything they ask.”, Getting some perspective, the second and third avenues or “ways of embodiment” above are analogous to the two main schools of Zen Buddhism—Rinzai and Soto. The shortfalls that have been identified by the rule’s detractors seemingly arise when the rule is over-generalized and set to tasks beyond its design. Universalization, in principle, reduces to absurdity in this sense. They are clarifications of the rule that expose misconceptions, central to its long-standing reputation. It perhaps can be rendered as `Remember that you offend fellow Jews also and so you are like the offender on other occasions.’. Universalization reveals how the basically sound rationale of the golden rule can go unexpectedly awry at full tilt. Modern empirical research has had difficulty finding the stable psychological traits that we continue to call virtues. They focus on explanation in principle, not application in the concrete. Kohlberg, L. (1968). This again was the Aristotelian approach to learning virtues and also the Confucian approach for starting out. It may detract from the good in fact. Notice that “loving thy neighbor as thyself” requires neither of these operations presuming that we know how to love ourselves and need only extend that to someone. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Likewise with “Do your part” or “Don’t get in the way”: these are general directives of how to orient ourselves on certain occasions. A modern Statement of the golden rule is not really to take another ’ reconstitution... Rational components, but more rarely hard on ourselves on occasion, a! 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