post on dualism & ethics
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Post on dualism & ethics. Stephen G. Post. “A Moral Case for Nonreductive Physicalism.” In Warren Brown, Nancey Murphy, & H. Newton Maloney, ed. Whatever Happened to the Soul? Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Thesis: Christian morality is compatible with nonreductive physicalism. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 1
Post on dualism & ethics
Stephen G. Post. “A Moral Case for Nonreductive Physicalism.” In Warren Brown, Nancey Murphy, & H. Newton Maloney, ed. Whatever Happened to the Soul? Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
Thesis: Christian morality is compatible with nonreductive physicalism.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 2
Post on dualism & ethics
Dualism appears to have some distinctive moral advantages– Notion of soul bestows “equal moral
worth on all humans” (196). •Persons who are severely mentally
handicapped and those with Alzheimer’s are still fully human because they have a soul. Accordingly they are worthy of full human dignity (197).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 3
Post on dualism & ethics
•Wolf Wolfensberger, uses this type of argument. He blames the mistreatment of the mentally retarded on “materialism” & “reductionistic” views of human nature.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 4
Post on dualism & ethics
– But historically the connection between soul and moral worth is not always present.•Plato was a strong dualist; yet in
the Republic he sanctioned infanticide for the sake of his eugenics program.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 5
Post on dualism & ethics
Dualism also has moral disadvantages – Slavery
• Plato likened the body to a slave; the soul is the master.
• He argued that just as the soul ought to have total dominion over the body, so should the master have dominion over the slave.
• This is the natural “order of being.”
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 6
Post on dualism & ethics
– Denial of pleasure • Lisa Sowle Cahill argues that
dualism is linked to the denial of pleasure and intimacy as values in married love.
• She traces this back to Augustine’s Neoplatonism--the body is a hindrance to the spiritual contemplation of God.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 7
Post on dualism & ethics
– Patriarchy • Cahil also argues that soul-body
dualism became intertwined with the patriarchal dualism of man over woman.
• Men were identified with the rational while women were identified with body, earthiness, and irrationality (206).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 8
Post on dualism & ethics
– The alternative: a monistic view of human nature• Do monistic views of human
nature threaten moral inclusivity (including all humans--women, children, the handicapped--as deserving respect & dignity) and traditional Christian ethics?
• Post answers no.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 9
Post on dualism & ethics
• Christianity contains within itself other resources for defending moral inclusivity
• These other resources–The common Christian narrative
that bids us to love even the most devastated and imperiled neighbor (210).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 10
Post on dualism & ethics
–The Christian notion that each human person is a child of God & the recipient of God’s love and grace.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 11
Post on dualism & ethics
–The notion of agape. »A “love of bestowal”-- a
person is loved simply because she or he is loved by God. Cf. a”appraisive love” — a person is loved because of certain attractive qualities (212).
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 12
Post on dualism & ethics
A comment on Post’s essay– The difference between traditional
notion of soul and the appeal to agape & the imitation of Christ is that the traditional position provides a metaphysical basis for morality; the appeal to agape & imitation does not.
Post on dualism & ethics - slide 13
Post on dualism & ethics
– And the traditional position provides a basis for moral inclusivity which can appeal to persons of different religions; the ethic of agape and imitation will not have any force to those who are not Christian.