Morning Thoughts: Moral Excellence and Discernment

I think about the idea of moral excellence pretty frequently. This morning I was thinking about how some modes of morality seem to be built around seeking things to accept, while others seem to be most interested in seeking things to reject. The former would have us embracing all kinds of destructive things on the principle that all paths are equally valid simply by virtue of the fact that they involve humans, while the  latter turns us into prudes, continually turning up our noses in self-righteous indignation at the perceived moral decay all around us. Personally, as with most things, I think the best way lies somewhere in the middle. True moral excellence relies on discernment, without preoccupation with acceptance or rejection. I think there is an element of simplicity to exercising good judgement, but it relies on finding the right principles to hold up as universal, and not fixating on any one predetermined response. That's not easy. Simple things rarely are. 

There's a longer post in here about moral relativism and "situational ethics" vs. the hierarchical nature of principles, but that will have to wait for another time. This is just what I've been thinking about this morning. 

Image: My daughter during a rehearsal for Once On This Island