VIRTUE ETHICS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 1: DECISION MAKING
BY JESSICA YORK JUDITH A. FREDIANI, DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR
© Copyright 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 8:31:12 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Every intersection in the road of life is an opportunity to make a decision. — Duke Ellington
This first workshop lays the foundation for the program by demonstrating how we make decisions and how ethical decision making can shape one's character for life. The workshop presents information on ethical theory. Yet this program is not about theories; rather, it is an opportunity to examine how living our Unitarian Universalist faith calls us to make ethical decisions even though to do so is often difficult. In this and future workshops, participants work together to untangle situations where conflicting ethical standards make it hard to discern the "right" decision.
This workshop introduces anklet making and journaling as spiritual practices to assist in ethical decision making. The youth create a group covenant, a commitment particularly important because of the personal experiences participants may share. Make sure to post the completed covenant where the group can refer to it throughout this program.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 25 |
Activity 1: Covenant | 15 |
Activity 2: Story — The Debate Among Parts of the Brain | 20 |
Activity 3: Practice | 25 |
Faith in Action: Congregational Decisions | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Real Life Challenges | |
Alternate Activity 2: Newsworthy? | 30 |
Alternate Activity 3: The Charioteer | 20 |
Alternate Activity 4: The Brain, Making Decisions | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Welcome to Virtue Ethics! Because it is important to start as you mean to continue, set aside time for your own spiritual preparation. Decide if you will prepare alone or with co-facilitators... or both. Find a comfortable location where you can spend several minutes undisturbed.
Practice a bit of creative visualization for the program: Imagine yourself leading the workshop activities with a group of youth. Do you know any of the youth? Have your previous experiences with them been positive? If so, remember what that was like. If not, go ahead and remember the difficult interactions, too; avoiding thinking about these times will not make them go away. Now, envision yourself sharing positive interactions with these youth. How will that happen? Are you more knowledgeable about their ways, or more flexible in how you might respond? Have the youth matured or changed? How will you relate to new youth, especially youth who are new to the congregation? How will you relate to parents and caregivers? As any other situations in our lives, you will have many decisions to make while facilitating this program. Some of your decisions will not work well. Acknowledge that, and forgive yourself in advance. Some of your decisions will be great!
Feel how uplifting it can be to feel connected to a group of energized, inquisitive youth and adults. Carry that feeling forward as you start this new adventure. Blessings!
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants experience how and process how they make decisions; then, the workshop is formally opened.
As participants enter, greet them individually and invite everyone to take a snack from the basket for snack time.
Once everyone is settled, say you will start the workshop shortly with a chalice lighting and reading, but first, you are curious about their snacks. Tell the youth they are welcome to eat their snacks now, but first they should explain what they were thinking when they picked the snack they picked. In other words: How did they decide what snack to pick?
Answers will vary. Some youth might not have picked a snack. Ask them why they made that decision.
After everyone has shared, acknowledge that many factors influenced their snack decision: hunger level, previous experience with the items in the basket, how often they are allowed to enjoy certain snacks, a desire to eat for health, a desire to eat for pleasure, how much mess the snack might make, letting their friend have the only banana (for example), allergies and dietary restrictions, etc... If no one picked the unusual snack (beet, cabbage, etc... ), ask why.
Remind them that this was just a snack—not a terribly important decision.
Invite participants to sit in a comfortable position and, if they choose, close their eyes, to share a meditation you will read aloud. Once youth are settled, share:
See yourself lying in your bed. At some point, you decided to get out of bed. How did you choose to wake up? Did you set an alarm? Did a family member rouse you? Did you leave it up to chance, knowing you generally wake up in time? Did you leave it up to chance because you did not feel compelled to get up at a particular time?
What other decisions did you make this morning? Did you have to negotiate bathroom time with family members? How did you decide what to wear today? Are you wearing a favorite top or bottom? Are you wearing simply what was clean? Did you plan your wardrobe last night or just grab something out of the drawer this morning?
Did you eat breakfast? If not, why? No time? Not hungry? Nothing you like in the cupboard? If you did eat, did you have any of the same thoughts when choosing breakfast as you did when choosing a snack? If not, why were the decisions different: time of day, location, offerings?
You came to our congregation today. Was that your decision? If so, why did you come? Did you have expectations? Are the expectations being met? What do you think now about the choice you made to come here?
Think of all the decisions you have made since you work up this morning. Think of all the decisions you make in a day. Each one is based on so many factors. How do we decide? What do our decisions say about us?
Pause for a moment, then invite participants to open their eyes.
Now say it is time for Opening words and lighting the chalice. Tell the group that each time you meet you will start by reciting together words attributed to the Buddha. Post the chalice lighting words you have written on newsprint. Invite a volunteer to light the chalice while you lead the group to recite these chalice lighting words:
The thought manifests as the word
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings...
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.
— from the Dhammapada, Sayings of the Buddha
Tell the youth this program will be about making ethical decisions. Invite definitions of "ethical." Offer this definition (from the Dictionary.com website): "pertaining to right and wrong in conduct."
Ask:
Say, in these words or your own:
As the meditation showed us, we make thousands of decisions a day. Few of these decisions are life changing. Yet, even our smallest decision could have consequences unforeseen. The quote from the Dhammapada says our thoughts becomes words, words become deeds, deeds turn into habits, and our habits shape our character. Do you believe this is true?
Think of young children. In the beginning, we all think the world revolves around our needs and desires. At some point, someone started to teach us that we should share. We recognized that other people have needs and desires, too. Not only that, we witnessed that we could fulfill the needs and desires of others. At that point, we made an ethical decision. We decided that we would try to fulfill the needs of others or we decided we would not or maybe we decided that sometimes we would, but only after our needs were met. Our decision manifested as a deed or action and at some point, it became habit.
Think about your peers. You know which ones you consider generous and which ones you would never want to ask a favor. Some are in the habit of helping others and some are not. We could also say some have a generous character and some are stingy or selfish.
Can you think of a time you intentionally decided to change your actions or deeds and develop a new habit? How did that habit influence your character? [Take responses.]
Now let's work backwards: If you believe the Buddha's words are true and you want to possess a strong, ethical character, what should we do about our habits? How should we act or perform deeds? What kinds of words and thoughts should occupy our minds?
This program will explore these questions. We will do this by discussing various virtues, character attributes that most people would agree are consistent with a strong, ethical character. We will work to understand these virtues better, what they mean for us individually, decide if we want them to be part of our character and make intentional plans for living these virtues in our daily lives so they become habits.
To conclude the Opening, indicate the "Bicycle Rack" newsprint you have posted. Tell the youth that from time to time, situations that require decision making will come up in group discussions but there will not always be time to discuss them right away. Encourage the youth to help you "park" interesting dilemmas in the Bicycle Rack today and in future workshops.
ACTIVITY 1: COVENANT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants decide how they wish to be together.
Explain that a covenant is a promise, an agreement as to how we will relate to each other. Ask if anyone can explain the purpose of creating a group covenant. Affirm that it is important to build trust and safety in the space you share together. You might say:
Throughout the program, participants will share some of their personal dilemmas in making ethical decisions. We need to talk about what can and cannot be shared outside the group, and how we will support each other in a discussion, even if we have differing opinions.
If there is a pre-existing covenant, share it with participants. Does everyone agree with items on the covenant? Is anything missing?
If you are starting from scratch, invite participants to suggest guidelines for how they will behave with each other during the program. Write all suggestions on newsprint. When the group has no more suggestions, propose any suggestions you and your co-leader wish to add.
Ask participants if they would have concerns about or difficulty agreeing to any items listed. Discuss those items and decide as a group whether to keep, edit, or eliminate them.
Pay particular attention to confidentiality. Youth will be invited to share from their experiences facing ethical choices, and to make commitments toward future behavior. Sometimes this will be very personal and private information. The youth may wish to covenant that they will not share others' personal stories outside the group. Or, they may decide it is okay to share what they learned from hearing someone else's story without sharing names of the involved parties. Whatever is decided, remind participants that they may always ask for complete confidentiality when sharing a personal story.
Let the group know that should someone disclose information about themselves or someone else being harmed or harming others, or about the possibility of harm, you are required to report the information to an adult in a position to help the situation. Safety is one need that trumps confidentiality.
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — THE DEBATE AMONG THE PARTS OF THE BRAIN (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell or read the story.
Then, say:
The story illustrates what science calls the "binding problem." How does our brain process information and make decisions? We know that it is not straightforward and sequential. For example, when you heard the invitation to choose a snack, your brain leapt into action, with all of the parts from the story acting at once. We know this because scans of the brain show how the neurons in each part of the brain fire virtually at the same time—not one after the other. They are communicating from the first instant to make the decision. Some of the brain parts help you make conscious decision. Some parts of the brain perform their jobs without you being aware of their contribution to your decision. Some of those decisions are based on past actions.
For example, if you have frequently bitten into worms when eating peaches, neurons in parts of your brain will fire off repulsion to peaches, which you will interpret as a conscious decision to not take the peach.
Here is another example: Have you have ever found money that did not belong to you? [Wait for a show of hands.] Sometimes, if you turn it in, you receive a reward. The reward could be monetary, but it could also be someone's sincere appreciation or the pleasure you receive from knowing you committed the actions of a good person. Your memory keeps these positive experiences. Every time you return lost money and get a positive consequence, you are more likely to return money the next time you find it because that section of your brain that deals in memory will be more inclined to tell you to return the money because other parts of the brain want that good feeling again. Does this make sense?
Lead a discussion with these questions:
Say:
There is still so much we do not understand about brain science. Scientists are trying to answer the question: What makes us human and different from other animals? One difference is the size and nature of the cerebral cortex and many think that holds the answer. One idea postulated by scientists is that as humans came together in communities, we were forced to communicate and cooperate and this grew our cortex. The larger our communities became, the larger the cortex. This idea might have some validity since many of the animals with the largest cortex (chimpanzees and elephants, for example) live in larger communities. For many years, scientists have believed that tool making "made" us human. Some now think that living in community "made" us human: In other words, we only became human in the presence of each other.
ACTIVITY 3: PRACTICE (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants receive journals, start building their anklets, and become familiar with the recurring Practice activity.
Tell the group, in your own words:
The goal of spending time together discussing ethical decision making is to help us practice for real life. Therefore, every workshop will include three elements: Some talk about real life ethical issues, an activity to examine hypothetical ethical dilemmas, and "Practice," a time for you to decide individually on the importance of the featured virtue in your life and plan how you wish to nurture this virtue in the future. During the Practice activity, you will have time to capture your thoughts in personal journals.
Distribute journals and writing implements. Continue:
Today, please write your name on your journal. We will start working in the journals next time.
What you write in your journal is yours alone to know. You will have opportunities to share your thoughts with the group, for those who wish to do so. Thoughts can be written, drawn, or captured in any way you choose.
You will also be encouraged to express your feelings about the featured virtue artistically. Every Practice activity will allow time to decorate a bead. The beads will be strung together to make an anklet. The anklet will be made of waterproof material so it will be safe in the shower or bath. You can wear your anklet as long as you like and it will be a reminder to you of your commitment to make ethical decisions.
Today, you can decorate a name bead. Include your initials or name if you wish, but take a moment to decorate it uniquely to express something about who you are. After you have decorated the first bead, we will start building the base of the anklet.
If a guest will help the youth start their anklets, introduce the guest. If you are using an instructional video, show it now.
Distribute beads and markers. Allow seven minutes to decorate the name bead, but if everyone finishes earlier, distribute clipboards and hemp and guide the youth to begin the anklets.
As youth are ready, help them add the first bead and knot the hemp to hold the bead on.
Watch the time. Leave a few minutes to collect the clipboards and anklets, and the journals if you plan to keep them between meetings, and to put away art materials.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the group that in every workshop, you will ask a volunteer to read a quotation while another volunteer (or the entire group) extinguishes the chalice.
Have a volunteer read this quote from the novelist Richard Bach while another extinguishes the chalice:
All we see of someone at any moment is a snapshot of their life, there in riches or poverty, in joy or despair. Snapshots don't show the million decisions that led to that moment.
Distribute Taking It Home.
FAITH IN ACTION: CONGREGATIONAL DECISIONS
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth examine decisions made by the congregation's governing body.
Ask the youth if they know who makes decisions for the actions of the congregation. The answer is probably a combination of congregational members and the congregation's governing body. Discuss the following, adapted for the process, policies, and specific recent actions of your congregation, to make sure participants understand how decisions are made:
Ask if anyone has attended any congregational and/or board meeting recently. If so, what was it like? Can they remember any decisions that were made? Were the decisions voted upon?
Distribute the meeting minutes you have assembled. If decisions were made and the group is interested, ask them to vote on whether they think the best decision was made by holding up index cards, where one color means "Yes" and the second color means "No." Pick decisions where you can impartially supply background the youth need to make informed decisions. Can youth imagine what emotions came into play as decisions were made? What about the reasoning involved?
Say that voting members make the best decisions for the congregation they can make at the time. Sometimes, in hindsight, they may wish they had decided differently. Yet, we believe the democratic process is usually the best tool for making decisions that affect us all. Ask if there is evidence that UUs believe this. [Hint: Look at the seven Principles.]
Ask if any one else makes decisions in the congregation. Committees, staff, volunteers, and individual members make decisions all the time. Are the youth involved in any congregational decision making?
Variation
Plan for the youth to attend a congregational or board meeting together. Before the meeting, gather the group to discuss the agenda and any decisions that may come up for a vote. If any youth are members, they might decide to speak at the meeting and share from the group's discussion. If non-members can speak at meetings, urge youth to do so about any decision they feel strongly affects them.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on the workshop with your co-leader. Did the group experience all the activities as you planned or should you make time adjustments for future workshops? Both group size and group dynamics will influence the pace. Was there a good amount of participation in discussions? It is early yet: Some individuals will need to feel more comfortable and safe in the group before they will speak up. Was starting the anklet successful? This activity happens in every workshop. Make adjustments as soon as possible.
Look at the next workshop and decide who will be responsible for which preparations.
TAKING IT HOME
Every intersection in the road of life is an opportunity to make a decision. — Duke Ellington
IN TODAY'S WORKSHOP... we talked about decision making. We heard a story about how the brain makes decisions. Understanding decision making is important because our decisions help shape who we are. We learned a quote from the Buddha which we will read every time we meet, to remind us that thoughts become deeds, which become habits, which become our character. Therefore, we need to be careful where our thoughts and deeds lead us.
The Brain. Find out more about why scientists think humans have the largest cerebral cortex. Here is a blog posting (at stray-ideas.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-is-purpose-of-cerebral-cortex.html) with one opinion. An episode of the PBS science series NOVA, "The Human Spark (at www.pbs.org/wnet/humanspark/)," also discusses this phenomenon.
Virtue Snapshots. Richard Bach wrote, "All we see of someone at any moment is a snapshot of their life, there in riches or poverty, in joy or despair. Snapshots don't show the million decisions that led to that moment." Yet, we constantly judge or make a decision about people based on these snapshots. Is this fair? Try taking "virtue snapshots." Notice when people around you, especially strangers, make moral decisions and take a snapshot in your mind. Look for both virtuous and not-so-virtuous acts. The person in line in front of you gives the cashier back the extra change they accidentally gave them. A baby drops its pacifier and a stranger walks by without picking it up. A friend passes a rumor about another friend without ever asking if it was true. Why do you think that person made that decision? What experiences have you had that would lead you to make the same, or a different, decision?
A Ritual. The book, How to Bury a Goldfish: And Other Ceremonies and Celebrations for Everyday Life, by Louise Nayer and Virginia Lang (Boston: Skinner House, 2007) includes a ritual on making choices on pages 148-149. It might be helpful in situations where you have conflicted feelings.
Virtues Survey. This program has a limited number of meeting times. Therefore, we can only explore a limited number of virtues. Have you ever thought about which virtues are the most important? Survey your family and friends. Ask for the top five most important virtues in leading a good life. Compare the lists. Are there any surprises? Bring the list to the next workshop and ask the leaders which ones the group will discuss.
Old-fashioned "Virtue." The word "virtue" can feel old fashioned. We do not often use it in everyday speech. Are you comfortable using the word? What does "living a virtuous life" mean to you? Do you think of yourself as virtuous? Is there another, similar word you might use instead?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: REAL LIFE CHALLENGES
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth discuss ethical challenges they have faced.
If someone shared an experience in check-in or during any workshop activities that the group would like to explore further, do so now. This could be particularly useful if an experience resonated with many participants. If several challenges are already listed on the Bicycle Rack, invite the youth to choose one to discuss. It need not be related to this workshop's topic.
You might use these questions to structure a discussion:
Affirm that is always easier to see good solutions in hindsight and that living a life according to virtues we want to nurture or values we hold dear is not always easy. We do not need to always "get it right," but we do need to keep trying.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: NEWSWORTHY? (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Ask participants to form groups of two or three and search the news sources for stories that involve ethical dilemmas. Examples could include politicians or business leaders investigated for fraud, theft, or deceit, or a situation in which someone has been charged with a crime based on an action which could be seen as good rather than bad. Invite youth to share any news stories they have recently heard. Discuss stories to articulate the ethical conflict in each and to identify stories in which someone has made a virtuous choice. Do the news sources treat these stories differently? What values or virtues do the news sources seem to highlight? What messages come through from the way news sources describe ethical dilemmas?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: THE CHARIOTEER (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 1, Ethical Theories Chart.
Tell the group that throughout time, many different theories have been put forward concerning how we make ethical decisions and a few are detailed on this chart.
Have volunteers read the chart.
Invite someone to put forward a simple ethical dilemma. If none is forthcoming, suggest this one: You are going to visit someone in a retirement home. On the steps, you find a $10 bill. What do you do?
Ask participants to answer the question and supply their reasoning using the different ethical theories in the chart.
Say, in your own words:
David Starr Jordan said, "Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Virtue is doing it." Jordan, born in 1851, was an accomplished and successful scholar, teacher, and author. He was one of the first to teach evolution at American universities. His study and cataloging of fish species is legendary. He was a prolific author, with dozens of books published and was at one time the best-selling author of Beacon Press, a UU publishing company. At the age of 34, he became president of Indiana University, making him the youngest university president ever appointed. Later, he was appointed president of Stanford University. High schools and scientific prizes are named after him. He was a charter member of the Sierra Club, president of the National Education Association (NEA), and an honorary associate of the Smithsonian Institute, which offered him positions he declined because he believed he could do more good working in education. Jordan was also a vocal peace activist, serving as director of the World Peace Foundation and receiving the Herman Peace Prize for the best educational plan for preserving world peace. His call for an end to war is viewed by many as a virtuous act. Do you agree or disagree?
David Starr Jordan was also a eugenicist. Eugenics, as defined on the Dictionary.com website, is "the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)." One of David Starr Jordan's primary criticisms of war was that it eliminated the strongest and most fit members of a society, and thus weakened the gene pool. He was a founding member of a eugenics organization that promoted compulsory sterilization of the less fit members of society (though he himself did not advocate for this) and he wrote The Blood of the Nation: A Study of the Decay of Races through Survival of the Unfit in 1902. It was published by the American Unitarian Association. In fact, his parents were Universalists and he was a friend and colleague of many UUs. Does this surprise you? Disappoint you? Is any organization or individual always right or virtuous? What do you think about that?
Today, many people would not find his position on eugenics virtuous. However, eugenics—based on misinterpretation of Darwin and evolutionary theory—was popular among American scholars in the late nineteenth century and among Americans in general in the early twentieth century. Ivy League universities and other colleges taught courses in eugenics. Eugenic beliefs in the fit versus the unfit in society were used as an argument to create laws supporting segregation, immigration restriction, and forced sterilization so that a person could not physically reproduce. Though eugenics became unpopular after Nazi Germany's effort to create a super Aryan race, you can still find traces of this way of thinking among white supremacist groups and in other places. In 2011, North Carolina became the first state to consider reparations to victims of forced sterilizations, which were legal in 33 states for much of the twentieth century. Most of the people forced to be sterilized were declared unfit because of mental or physical disability, poverty, criminal records, or race or ethnicity.
During its popularity, proponents of eugenics would have though that trying to improve the gene pool of the human race was a virtuous act. This raises a number of questions: How timeless are virtues? Does what we call virtuous behavior depend on the time, the place, and other environmental factors? Does the fact that we do not always act virtuously, or the fact that virtues may not be eternal, negate their usefulness as tools to help us shape our own character and live our daily lives?
This program is based upon what is commonly called "virtue ethics." It corresponds to the Aristotelianism column on the chart in the handout. It is one way of thinking about ethical decision making. As the chart demonstrates, it is not the only way. Aristotle's ideas about ethics and virtuous living are similar to the ideas of Confucius in ancient China; the entire religion of Confucianism is based upon ethical decision making.
Some of Aristotle's ideas about virtue ethics are outdated. For example, he likened the brain during decision making to a chariot. The horses were our emotions, which are base, animalistic things, wanting to run wild and unfettered. Thankfully, the chariot has a charioteer to keep things under control. The charioteer is reason. Aristotle saw decision making as a struggle between reason and emotions. The best decisions were made when reason was in total control. You can also envision this as a battle between the heart and the head. Where else have you heard the heart/head dichotomy used to distinguish two different ways of being? Have you heard the term "bleeding heart liberal?" Does this phrase—used derisively by conservatives—imply that some liberals are ruled by the heart instead of the brain? And that this is not a good thing?
We know from our story about modern brain science that this is a false analogy. Both the emotions and reason are used when we make decisions and some decisions are best made by the emotional part of the brain. Does the fact that Aristotle's charioteer theory is wrong negate the usefulness of virtue ethics?
Aristotle's charioteer and the eugenics movement in the United States are two examples that illustrate how complex ethical decision-making can be. During our program, we will wrestle with complexities. I can promise you, we will not always get it right. Yet, I believe trying to consciously make virtuous, ethical decisions is better than the alternatives: Leaving it up to chance, or letting others make our decisions for us.
What do you think? What value do you see in using virtues as a tool to make ethical decisions?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 4: THE BRAIN, MAKING DECISIONS (20 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants use knowledge of brain science to examine decision making.
Invite participants to role play making decisions. Ask the role players to imagine (aloud) what processes they think their brain might be going through. Of course, since a great deal of it is unconscious, we cannot be sure. The activity is just fun speculation.
VIRTUE ETHICS: WORKSHOP 1:
STORY: THE DEBATE AMONG THE PARTS OF THE BRAIN
Based on Aesop's "The Belly and the Other Members of the Body."
Once upon a time, the various parts of the brain got together to discuss their contributions to the uniqueness of the human being. Each part of the brain thought the human ought to know that it was the most important in determining what it means to be human.
"You know, you really could not breathe without me," said the brain stem, the oldest part of the brain, at the very bottom. "Let me see how special you feel with no oxygen in your lungs!"
The diencephalon, the next part moving upwards, chimed in. "Yes, but I produce hunger pangs to let you know when to eat. Without me, you would starve."
The limbic system tried to speak, but the other parts rudely told limbic that its animal impulses, like lust and violence, created some of humankind's worst problems and would not listen to it.
"Everyone who has spoken so far belongs to what humans like to call the 'primitive brain,'" explained the cerebral cortex. "I am what makes humans unique. I present to you the four lobes of GREATNESS!" And each of the cerebral cortex's lobes then spoke:
"I am the occipital lobe. I am involved with vision."
"I am the parietal lobe. I receive sensory information from the body. But that is not all. I also take the letters the occipital lobe sees or the letters I feel (if using braille), and I form them into words. I then string together words to form complete thoughts." The other parts of the brain were impressed, and applauded. Though a bit of a braggart, the parietal lobe had the decency to blush.
The bar was now set higher. "You all know me," smirked the temporal lobe. "I'm all over the place. I do a little vision work, interpret most of what you hear, coordinate language, learning, memory, and even dabble in emotions. I'm a jack of all trades."
"Yes, but where would any of you be without me, "said the frontal lobe. "I do all the problem solving, decision making, and conscious behavior. I make sure you do not act in (sniff) inappropriate ways." Frontal looked directly at limbic while making this remark. "It is my use of reason that makes a human unique."
"Hey, wait," shouted temporal. "You forgot to mention that you, too, are involved with emotions. You are not just dealing in reason. Within your folds is the orbitofrontal cortex or OFC. I know because we're good friends and communicating all the time. The OFC integrates emotions into the decision making process."
"Yeah, OFC and I are buddies, too." said limbic. "It is always in touch with us 'primitive brain' parts. Before you make any decision to act, frontal lobe, the OFC has checked out how the person feels about the action needed and decided it is the best thing to do. You could not make that decision without consulting the parts of the brain responsible for emotions and those parts are all over the place. The old idea that human beings are mostly rational animals is outdated. Even you, frontal—the most rational part of the brain—consult emotions to do your job, which is making conscious decisions."
"In fact," the OFC piped up (it had been present all along, but preferred to work behind the scenes), "conscious decisions are not literally conscious at all. All decisions involve some unconscious processing that happens before the consciousness is even aware that a decision needs to be made. The unconscious thoughts are influenced by emotions, yes, but also strongly influenced by memory. We, the brain parts, ask ourselves, 'Have I encountered this situation before?' and use the answer to inform the decision. Therefore, the human's previous experiences and even their habits inform your actions on a conscious and unconscious level."
"So be careful of your habits and actions or deeds," said temporal.
"Likewise, be careful with your thoughts and words," said parietal.
"Wow! We are really wise when we work together," said the brain.
VIRTUE ETHICS: WORKSHOP 1:
HANDOUT 1: ETHICAL THEORIES CHART
Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804) was a German philosopher. Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher.
Moral system | Consequentialism: An action is right if it produces best consequence | Deontology: An action is right if it follows a moral rule | Virtue Ethics: An action is right if it is what a virtuous person would do in the situation |
Ethic is based on ... | Ethic of conduct | Ethic of conduct | Ethic of character |
Example of a theory | Utilitarianism | Kantianism | Aristotelianism |
Question asked | How do I get what is best for society? | What is the rational thing to do? | What is the best kind of person to be? |
Right and wrong | The action is right if it results in the best consequence. | The action is right if it fits the moral code, no matter the consequence. | The action is right if it embodies the greatest virtue. |
FIND OUT MORE
Ethics Theory
The adult Tapestry of Faith curriculum What We Choose: Ethics for Unitarian Universalists (at www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/ethics/index.shtml) unpacks a variety of ethical frameworks in detail. You can read more about the theories presented in Alternate Activity 3 on the Wadsworth (at www.wadsworth.com/philosophy_d/templates/student_resources/0534624782_wall/additional_readings/ethical_theories.pdf) philosophy for higher education website. Find a longer article on virtue ethics in the online Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (at www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/).
The Brain
Many details in the story about how the brain makes decisions come from a fascinating book, How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2009).
A slide show (at www.slideshare.net/neurosciust/the-cerebral-cortex) describing the lobes of the cortex has been posted online by "neurosciust." It is informative. However, one slide states there are five lobes, while subsequent slides discuss four lobes (there are only four distinct lobes).
Eugenics
Read the entry for David Starr Jordan in the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography (at www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/davidstarrjordan.html).
Find out more about the American eugenics movement on this Image Archive (at www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/). A five-part series about North Carolina's forced sterilization's victims can be found in the Winston-Salem Journal (at againsttheirwill.journalnow.com/) online.