Post on dualism & ethics

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 1

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 2

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 3

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 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

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 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

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 12

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. Post on dualism & ethics - slide 13