Looking at the Emerson quote, "Character is higher than intellect" and then examining the article we read really got me thinking about society and how we overlook the right moral and intellectual character and look just at the intellectual side. I can relate with the girl mentioned in this book because I know how hard it is to work for everything you have and still put you time in at a prestigious university trying to better life for yourself and family.
It is interesting to look at how everything is so skewed on what makes a person moral. We take for granted that just because we may say we are moral and have learned it from many people, a lot of people in todays' world are not as moral as they say they are. We are constantly learning and everything we do, every person we meet in some way plays some form or fashion on the person we ultimately are. We learn characteristics, knowledge, and intigrity from all facets of life. What we fail to do is realize this and apply the good to ourselves to better ourselves. You can learn about being a good person or doing the right thing, but the test is if you will actually apply it to yourself or if you just think about it and not act upon it. Every person plays a pivotal role in who we are. From the time we are born to the time we die. Each new experience or interaction is in some way connected to us as a whole.
As a student, you sit in class and think how you might do things differently if or when you were the professor. Now you have learned what you percieve are the do's and don'ts to teaching a class. The thing is, I bet more times then not that a given perosn will teach just like the professor before him because it obviously played a natural role in how he learned the material he is teaching. It is always easy to be a critic and say you would do it differently but in the end we are creatures of habit and instinct and we tend to do what we know.
Se la vie
-SWS II
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Steven,
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on morality and your conclusion about the repetition of previous habits and instincts reminds me of an old adage, "I am my father's son." Though this saying could be applied in regards to genetics and inheriting the habits of your parents, I think it is nonetheless relevant in your discussion on morality. We continue to repeat what we have seen and learned because it is so deeply ingrained within us. We may recognize the mistakes and inadequacies of others, as you point out in your professor example, but we are either oblivious to them or simply ignore them when we are in the position we once criticized. I imagine it is a bit of both. Either way, humanity does indeed need to more carefully apply its moral principles if we wish to set an example for our younger generations. I think the self-critical and self-aware attitude that the study and practice of formal philosophy instills in its students may help us towards that end.
I think we generally forget to add intellectual virtue into the equation. Very nice set of reflections.
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