Building Your Own Conscience
(Batteries not included)
Morality in General
1. Whose Truth?
Objective and subjective morality
Epistemology
existence: is it there?
nature: what’s it for?
experience and reason
trustworthy testimony
The reasoning process
perceive, categorize, evaluate, symbolize, critique
Objective fact
Subjective reasoning
Moral=Human
Proverbs 8:1-10
Job 38:1-7
1Kings 3:6-14
Numbers 22:22-35
Acts 17:22-28
2. What Being Human Means?
Human nature and animal nature
Resolutions
What are humans for?
Human qualities
Understand vs. animal awareness
love vs. animal affection
grow as human vs. animal slavery
Potential
Luke 10:30-37
Luke 14:7-24
Genesis 49:1-28
Hebrews 5: 11-14
Isaiah 1:2-6
3. Conscience
Utilitarian: What works
Altruistic: What’s right
Lawrence Kohlberg
6 stages of moral awareness
Sigmund Freud
Superego-Ego-Id
Personality: Outer Self
Character: Inner Self
2Corinthians 1:12-14
Matthew 5:21-24
Acts 15:1-21
Romans 2:12-16
1Corinthians 10:27-33
4. Relationships
Freedom and autonomy
What does any human deserve from the objective fact of his or her humanity?
Human relationships
Education
Making a living
Finding what living is for
Who am I?
conscience-autonomy
Where do I fit in?
Biological ecology
Moral ecology
2Samuel 11:1-12:15
Romans 12:9-21
Acts 6:1-7
James 1:22-25
Galatians 6:7-10
5. Legal/Moral
Rules or Laws
Arbitrary vs. Natural
Two objective factors
Narcissism vs. Inertia
Two kinds of authority(power)
Political
Moral
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Galatians 3:10-14
James 2:8-13
Mark 6:37-42
Matthew 15:16-20
Notebooks
Using a notebook to responsibly record notes will create a handy study guide for quizzes and tests. Your notebooks will not be checked. As this seminar insists, students capable of studying morality are emergent adults. If you cannot take responsibility for your own learning, that in itself is a problem for which the only antidote is a stiff dose of failure.
Journal
The journal is the most important element in this seminar. Journal writing has at least three functions.
First, by the fifth grade students have learned that you do not volunteer answers. If you just sit and stare long enough, the teacher will most likely pass over you and call on someone else–there will always be someone who will take off the heat. All students in this seminar must be active participants in the thinking process. The journal will engage your active thinking
Second, the journal will force students to put into words what they are thinking. Having some vague “feeling” about an issue in not thinking. “Having an idea” is not the same thing as “reasoning.” Many will settle for top-of-the-head responses, don’t let yourself get away with this. Avoid any immature minimalism that will simply get the assignment out of the way, challenge yourself to think more clearly about a topic.
Third, your journal will be taken seriously. They will be collected periodically and graded on a 4 point scale. Occasionally you may feel that you wish a particular entry not to be read, simply fold the page over and staple and I will assure your responses will remain confidential.