Thanks for your response. Frankly, I've never quite understood aesthetics or metaphysics, nor how they relate to the other fields. Perhaps this is just one of my blind spots. Then again, I did not study these fields in depth, and perhaps I am overcomplicating them. One thing I found studying philosophy is that most of it is just common sense obscured by poor writing, and, in more recent years, by the deliberately confusing manner which the "publish-or-perish" trend in academia promotes.

Not to say that I don't appreciate aesthetics. I greatly appreciate, for example, the beauty of young girls. ;-)

I generally agree with your points, and certainly don't think that what passes for ethics that is being taught to children is in any way actually ethical - all the more reason to teach this branch of philosophy more widely.

Personally, I think that ethics boils down to what allows a society to thrive. Cultures with poor ethical systems have died out or remained small or powerless. Contrary to what some folk believe, however, love and kindness do pretty well at preserving and enriching a culture. It allows trust to develop, leading to trade and specialization of skills, allowing in the end for a society that is more than the sum of its parts.

Historically, nations with poor soldiers who fight as a unified force generally beat nations with excellent soldiers who fight as individuals. In the same way, Love is a unifying force that helps a culture survive and thrive. The U.S. has a unique culture of unifying love and individualism, which accounts for its great power. It attracts the best from all over the world because they know they will be accepted and allowed to contribute in their own way. Unfortunately the U.S. still has a number of blind spots, including its treatment of children and those who love them. ;-(

Given those beliefs about what Ethics is, I am rather skeptical of using an ethical system based on a Nomadic culture of 4000 years ago. When reading the Old Testament, the laws actually make pretty good sense - if you understand what the people were facing at the time, and what needed to be done to assure the preservation of the culture. Things have changed, however, in the last 4000 years. I have no doubt that teaching children this antiquated ethics does them great harm.



Baldur