If a morality is a set of rational concepts about what is right and wrong, thumotic living is amoral. Not immoral. Amoral.
It's amoral because when we live from our spirit and heart, complying with our own or some else's rational concepts about right and wrong are irrelevant.
What matters is fulfilling the life-affirming desires of our heart.
I've been sitting with this entry for a little while now, and find I could use some clarification. Are you saying that thumotic living is amoral because when I live in this manner, I am naturally fulfilling my own inclinations about "right and wrong"? Or are you saying that in fulfilling the life-affirming desires of my heart, I have no need for such concepts at all? I'm puzzling over this, and appreciate any further clarity you may share at this point.
ReplyDeleteHmm, neither of the options you offer feel like they hit the bull's eye of the target.
ReplyDeleteI'm saying that when we live from our thumos, morality is irrelevant. Thumotic living is amoral because the way a tree lives isn't right or wrong. It doesn't live according to a moral code. It's not judged against a moral standard. It just lives and becomes what it is meant to become. Concepts about right and wrong are irrelevant. Does that help any?
It helps a great deal, Mark. Thank you. Once you made the connection to another living creature in your analogy of the tree, I understood your point. I lost sight of that basic tenet of your ideas. For what reason would we live any differently than a tree or a bird or a stone? Morality becomes a human construct that becomes valueless when we see ourselves as merely another component of the animate earth. Is that closer to your intention?
ReplyDeleteWe do live differently than a tree because we're human. We are a unique species of animal. One thing that sets us apart from others is our rational function. I'm do not mean to say that morality is valueless. I do mean to say that living from our thumos is a very different way of living and making choices, one not centered in our rational function but in the life-affirming desires of our heart, our thumos. We can use our rational function to reflect on our actions after the fact. We can also use it in collaboration with our thumos to deliberate within about a specific choice. That being said, yes, I do see various different moralities as human mental constructs that haven't served us very well in the way that we've used them. We do not have to look far to see that they are ineffective except perhaps as guides for punishing ourselves and others.
ReplyDeleteAh, it appears I still didn't have it quite right. I appreciate the additional clarification.
ReplyDeleteActually, to answer your question above, you were closer to what I was trying to say. It just felt to me that "valueless" and "merely" were too strong.
ReplyDelete