The choices we make
Lat year one of the important philosophers of the 20th and 21st century- Thomas Nagel - published a small but rich collection of 2 essays as a book titled “Moral Feelings, Moral Reality, and Moral Progress”. The mere fact of dedicating work to this - otherwise timeless - subject appears in contrast with the enormous random noise background of our societies. The subject requires great concentration, discretion and reflection and to reach sufficient detachment necessary to examine such a subject appropriately one needs to reach “reflective equilibrium” as purported by the author, a concept first brought forward by his mentor John Rawls.
As a background, the moral pathways have long been theoretically split between the consequential and the deontological and Nagel does not intend to make us choose between those. He points out the advantages and limitations of both and, in the context of moral progress, the considerations for the consequences of our acts seem to be encouraged. It is also very much worth noting that this overall discussion is thousands of years old but, despite that, the world has not ceased to witness things that the vast majority of us will find hard or impossible to morally justify.
A first observation to make here is that the 2 theories of moral judgement are born of our natural tendencies to lean towards the left - emotion and intuition - or the right - reasoning and logic - from a subtle system perspective. When we use our intuition, conditionings and emotions we are in a deontological framework, and when we use our ego and reasoning we walk a consequentialism path. What we need is to seamlessly integrate those but of course that is not possible until our awareness has “graduated” beyond them.
Another observation is that an epic written thousands of years ago still has the complete guide to moral compass and decision-making. In the Mahabharata a giant tapestry is woven where dozens of characters make complex choices one after another that cause the story to roll forward. Most instructive is the fact that characters of great integrity get caught by their own choices which appear to be fully respecting widely accepted rules of virtue and yet amount to tragical mistakes by the end. A myriad roads of reflection open from such an epic but in this context we will highlight just 2.
Firstly, the concept of context - place and time - is essential and Nagel also gives it a deserved place. A choice made in certain context may need to be overridden later in order to remain on the moral freeway. In practice this means being able to let go of sometimes extremely dear and strongly held convictions. The second is the very fact that difficult moral moments usually arise when we have to make what seems like competing, mutually exclusive choices, all within acceptable moral norms.
The solution in Mahabharata is stated by Shri Krishna as becoming “sthita prgnya” which can be translated as an enlightened witness. Of course this sounds like the original and absolute version of the “reflective equilibrium” coined a few thousand years later….This allows for not holding on to anything from the past, even our “great” decisions, and be completely in the present. It also generates a power of absolute discretion where the rankings of the higher to lower levels of goodness become clear and decisions can flow in a similar order when confronted with apparently conflicting choices. This can though only happen in a state where we go above our ego and conditionings and as much as we know that is only possible through the power of our Mother energy. With her awakening our awareness can reach the level from which we start to perceive our pure Self and from that point onwards the power of detachment and discretion can flow in such a way that real moral progress can be made.