How often do we engage in self righteous justifications or proclaim peoples’ rights to do anything from spending the rent money to killing another in the name of honour? Last night Australian moral philosopher, Raimond Gaita (Romulus My Father) spoke at the St James Ethics Centre Forum series. See www.ethics.org.au He told stories and gave profound observations about the nature of morality and shared humanity. Ethics he thinks is not about the lofty language of “rights”, but dwells within our common experiences of love, shame, joy, or grief. The problem is that these feelings that we all have at some time are so often dismissed as sentimentality or explained away by psychology or rationality.If we share these experiences we can find shared understanding even in the most difficult political and personal conflicts. The latest edited edition about Gaita’s moral philosophy is A Sense of Humanity – its worth a read…
