Moral Guidance

Safehands

Peregrinus wrote: »

It may be true to say that, if you're looking for a forum which supports intentional moral/ethical discourse at a level above the family then, yes, the decline of the churches may leave something of a gap. But it's not a gap that is in principle unfillable.

Ah yes Peregrinus, but who is grabbing the baton and trying to fill the gap? Undoubtedly, a number of churches caused a great deal of harm in our society, for a variety of reasons. They did however, preach against egocentricity. They made some effort to encourage people to give their children certain values. Unfortunately, the actions of religious institutions fell a long way short, in lots of respects, of the values espoused in their sermons. Consequently, they have allowed themselves to be emasculated and play little or no part in most young people's lives today.
Hollywood, HBO and some very astute media people appear to be providing the new role models. Parents may not like it, but they are fighting a very steep, uphill battle to have any influence on the attitudes of their teenage offspring.

Peregrinus

Safehands wrote: »

Ah yes Peregrinus, but who is grabbing the baton and trying to fill the gap? . . .

Well, schools, for one. Especially if we're talking about young people. My daughter attended a non-religious primary school in Australia. The school was quite explicit about the inculcation of values and ethical standards. The notion that secular schools are some kind of neutral, belief-free, value-free environment is one that is sometimes advanced, but it is actually nonsense.

ScumLord

Safehands wrote: »

Ah yes Peregrinus, but who is grabbing the baton and trying to fill the gap?

Society is taking control of our morality through education and open debate. There has been an open debate on homosexuality for the past few decades, throughout our media, works of art and finally on the internet. Through our open society we discovered that hommosexuals weren't monsters, they were people that didn't deserve to be demonised for liking the same sex.

Our morals are coming from empathy, using debate and compromises based on reality to find a balance that we can all live with. It's a real, lasting way of maintaining peace. It's also eliminating hate and fear because we can better understand each other.

Astrolabe

In answer to the original question, I think the parents/guardians are the first port of call for moral guidance. Basic stuff - like why it's wrong to steal, or tease other kids etc. I also think reading can play an important part. When I was a kid I used to read all sorts of books - novels and kids' books etc - and there would always be a moral dilemma of some sort. Reading really gave me a good insight into how other people feel in certain situations, because a writer can describe things like that in great detail, how a person feels etc, whereas TV can't.

In my opinion, it's important for parents to encourage empathy in their kids while they're still young, for instance "imagine how you'd feel if somebody stole YOUR bike...?" ...as opposed to teaching them that something is wrong "because it just is".

Just my thoughts!

Safehands

Astrolabe wrote: »

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In my opinion, it's important for parents to encourage empathy in their kids while they're still young, for instance "imagine how you'd feel if somebody stole YOUR bike...?" ...as opposed to teaching them that something is wrong "because it just is".

I agree, it is important. But how many do? Leave your bike outside a local supermarket for ten minutes and you may get the answer to that question!

Peregrinus

Astrolabe wrote: »

In my opinion, it's important for parents to encourage empathy in their kids while they're still young, for instance "imagine how you'd feel if somebody stole YOUR bike...?" ...as opposed to teaching them that something is wrong "because it just is".

Parents do that, and I think pretty well always have done. But in fact the capacity for empathy is really something that only comes with maturity; small children are simply incapable of anything more than the most superficial and fleeting empathy, and encouraging them to be more empathetic is no more effective than encouraging them to ride a bicycle or perform calculus; they simply can't do these things until they reach the appropriate stage of development.

So moral formation in children always involves a combination of ethical exhortation (e.g. encouragement to empathy) plus punishment/reward (e.g. the naughty step, praise). It's the punishment/reward that actually inculcates virtuous habits of behavior, and if you omit it your attempts at ethical formation will basically have no effect at all. The value of the ethical exhortation is more long-term; long after the child has (hopefully) acquired virtous habits like sharing his toys and not hitting his little brother or sister, when he reaches a state of development at which reflection on these habits is possible, he'll find he already has some ideas which support the view that these habits are good, because his parents indoctrinated them in him at an early age.