Linking Aristotle & My Offenses, 6-25-2010

[Continued from Working on a New Ethical Consensus. sch 12/18/22.]

I wonder how I will survive the next twelve years of being as penitential as I have been these past three months. Or is this why the returning convicts of my age seem so vague and mush-brained?

I am not so sure what to make of this point from Aristotle's Book III, Chapter 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics: 

...Certainly every vicious person is ignorant of the actions he must do or avoid,a nd this sort of error makes people unjust, and in general bad.

I committed my crimes knowingly with the intent of discovery, with the purpose of using the discovery as an excuse for suicide. I am not sure if that makes me vicious; bad, maybe; moronic, certainly.

I strongly suggest reading Book II and Book III of The Nicomachean Ethics. 

...For our decisions to do good or bad actions, not our beliefs, form the characters we have....

 Here I quibble with Aristotle, I have Freud and William James lying between him and me. I recall James writing that ideas precede actions. Our ideas do matter. If we do not have a consensus of good or bad as ideas, then one could act in a way that is good within their understanding but bad within mine. I came to believe I was a vile person, a little more bad behavior would not harm what could not be redeemed, and so I acted to further my aim of self-destruction. I thought suicide was a good action. [Well, a controlling part of me thought so. sch 12/18/22.]

I see something existential in that last quoted passage. Also, I can trace a similar way of thinking back to my mother, who told us actions speak louder than words. 

How to debate if actions are good or bad when we cannot share the same moral universe?

I think any atonement I make will be dismissed as trying to excuse my bad behavior. As I see it, I atone because the effects of my bad behavior need an endpoint, or their continuance means more harm. 

Before going, I want to offer one more question about beliefs leading to action. We know now of biochemical influences on our behavior. How does this affect judging our ethical actions?

Here Aristotle has an answer for us:

...For we can never censure someone if nature causes his ugliness, but if his lack of training or attention causes us it we do censure him. (Nicomachean Ethics, Book III, Chapter 5, §15)

Under the law, depression does not mean we no longer know good from bad, but ethics extends beyond the law. 

Notice the word "attention" in that quote. We need time to reflect on our goals and our means. If we do not, or cannot, take the time to pay attention to our behavior, then we are in trouble. Take my life since March 11, 2010, as an example of what can go wrong. Change your ways.

sch