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updated: 1/26/16

EMOTIVE ETHICS

the oldest, most common approach to ethics, sometimes called

"Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself":

In feeling terms:

 

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INSPIRATIONS

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)  Mathematical Circles

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Pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but  sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

 

David Foster Wallace, Commencement Speech

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Love alone can unite living beings so as to complete and fulfill them... for it alone joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth." 
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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"LOVE AND DO WHAT YOU WILL"  St. Augustine

 

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Meditation and Guided Imagery

Dass Guided Imagery

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1-26 EMOTIVE ETHICS and THE SYMPATHETIC IMAGINATION

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TODAY'S GOALS:

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 [2A2] ETHICS: The second goal of the required leadership/ethics flag courses -- learn to make real-life ethical choices -- is closely related to the core purpose of the University of Texas, to transform lives for the benefit of society. It is also one of the basic education requirements of U.T.: "have experience in thinking about moral and ethical problems." Our ethics goals include    [   [2A2e] To return to the traditional college goals of developing character and conscience.    [2A2f] To practice replacing fear and greed with love, compassion, tolerance, and the sympathetic imagination.

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TODAY'S TOPICS: St. Augustine's essence of ethics:  

"LOVE AND DO WHAT YOU WILL." But what kind of "love"? how does it relate to nonbinary emotion, "empathy"; "sympathy"; "compassion"? the "sympathetic imagination"? the Brahmaviharas? caritas? biophilia? īśvará (atman)? etc. Can this kind of love defeat our fears? If not, what is the prognosis for homo sapiens?   see "Homo Empathicus"

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TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:; GUIDED IMAGERY, BEST AND WORST for 1st half ,QUIZ and then Blog DISCUSSIOn

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Homo Empathicus

https://youtu.be/LTn7pRmbVmA

JUST ONE EXAMPLE OF THE NEW INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH ON THE MAN/ANIMAL BOUNDARY IN MANY DIFFERENT DISCPLINES

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REQUIRED READING: COURSE ANTHOLOGY

The word "love" in Western languages, including Sanskrit (Links to an external site.)

155-161                 The Word Love in English and Greek

162                           The words "Loving-Kindness" and Metta

163                      Metta and the other brahmaviharas

164-166                 Harris on the brahmaviharas
          167                 Judeo-Christian love and caritas; love vs. fear
168                           Native American love vs. fear story
169                          The term "biophilia"
170-210                 Rifkin, The Empathic Civilization:

Intro.; Adam Smith revised;  The new psychology of empathy + global empathic consciousness;   Mirror neurons and resonance circuitry; Darwin; Deep play; Empathic roots of language;  animal models; India, Jainism, Buddhism; reason and emotion, Schopenhauer, Kant; animal welfare; group therapy and self-help groups, Moreno fellow species, biophilia, global empathy

 
211-217                 Dolby, Rethinking Multicultural Education: the New Empathy and Social Justice

POSITIVE NON-BINARY EMOTIONS
218-219                Love +Joy
220-221                 Peacefulness + "Know Thyself"
222-223                 Enjoyment; Acceptance
224-226                Enthusiasm

DEFINITIONS OF RELATED TERMS
227-229                 Definition of Passion
230-231                 Definition of Compassion
232-234                Definitions of Humane, Human,
235-236                 Definition of Animal
                       237  Definition of Empathy [SEE ALSO "Roots of Empathy"; "Empathy vs. Video Games; Rifkin, Dolby]
238-239                 Definition of Sympathy
240                           Definition of Sympathetic Imagination

OVERVIEWS OF PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS
       241-245          Companion to Ethics by Singer, Table of Contents
246                           The Ethics of Sympathy: summary

247-248  The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics ed. Donovan and Adams,

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REVIEW:

• EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ===================================================

• 116                 Know Thyself 117-120          Leadership, EQ, and Both Sides of the Brain 121-123           Emotional Intelligence 124-126           Harmonizing Emotion and Thought 127-128           "The Man Without Feelings" 129-130           "The Roots of Empathy" 131-133           Empathy vs Video Games 134                 David Lee Powell, Plan II student? 135                 Molesters and Sociopaths 136                  "I Am a Rock"; 136                 "Comfortably Numb" 137-140                "Turn It Off".

141                  Definition of "Sentimentality" EMOTIONAL LITERACY 142-149           Emotion Words checklist 150                 Children's Feeling Words 151                  Vocabulary of Emotions 152                  Intensity of Feelings Chart

           153-154           Writing Emotions

Definition of Compassion;  Definition of Sympathetic Imagination

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING;     10-11        Meditation and Guided Imagery           Feedback and Emotional Intelligence                23  Ram Dass / Einstein Guided Imagery      

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LOOKING AHEAD:

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1-28 Power Animals and Native American Literature: b&w 2nd half; quiz, discussion of blogs 

Extra credit for coming in Native American or African costumes,

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1-28 EXTRA CREDIT; Rob Nixon on" Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene*" Thu, January 28, 2016 | CLA 1.302B 6:00 PM

Eight points if I see you there, up to twenty-seven more for an "extra credit" blog responding to the lecture

*"anthropocene":

"The era of geological time during which human activity is considered to be the dominant influence on the environment, climate, and ecology of the earth..... most commonly taken to extend from the Industrial Revolution to the present....." (OED); see Nixon's essay: http://edgeeffects.net/anthropocene-promise-and-pitfalls/

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blogs for the week due by 11:59 PM the previous Sunday.

2-2 P1 Project 1 and Power Animals: b&w 1st half ; quiz, discussion of blogs

           February 3 Wednesday Twelfth class day; this is the date the official enrollment count is taken.Last day an undergraduate student may add a class except for rare and extenuating circumstances. Last day to drop a class for a possible refund.

 

2-4 P1 due online for critiques: Moyer's Rebirth at U.T. 

2-4 P1a due on blog

P1 critiques due

2-23 P1b final version due

 

 

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