Follow Virtue And Knowledge

Good doctrine leads to good actions. A chain of good actions from internal to external. Internally, morals and virtues leading to good external actions and behaviour. That seems wise. We can respond to the call and become new people. Lived experiences and befriending new symbols and living a symbolic life. Yes. Virtues are our gifts. It is what we do with them that makes us virtuous or vicious. We all want to be good people, yes. But what is it? Good to the ancient Greeks meant something entirely different to what it means to us today. Moral concepts change as social life changes because they are part of social life. Forms of social life can be distinguished by identifying differences in moral concepts. We m odify moral concepts to change behaviour. In doing so it can become problematic as they defined the framework of that earlier world. We must know that to interpret it. Teaching virtue to competitors and opponents can be very difficult. We can try to justify our actions by saying this or that creates happiness, a form of good. Then there is theodicy, the problem of evil. Why do good people suffer and evil people do well. Good people suffering for their souls and happiness and those forms of life where we do well and fare well. Our happiness is good measured according to a variety of criteria - good farmer, good person, right conduct. Righteous indignation is our right to feel aggrieved when we see the undesrved good fortune of others. A belief developed that everything that happens is an action of divine principle, so there is no evil, like the Stoic belief in necessity and purpose but that was an attempt to avoid the problem. They could merely assent or dissent to that determinism. We try to create a better society. It can be viewed from these two diffrent perspectives. Trying to create a society where just people are crucified and creating one where we do well and fare well and evil no longer happens. Ethical systems should be up to the task. No one who is suffering can be happy. The Stoical system maintained there was no evil really, there had to be good and evil, right and wrong and so on. Stoics also developed a belief in apathy. They however were citizens of the Universe, not of the earthly city. When their questions are exposed to poverty and disease, mortality and ruling powers those questions remain. There is a lot of apathy around today. The questions remain today.