Sophrosyne in modern day

I found it interesting that sophrosyne, in some translations or understandings of the word, means self-restraint or chastity. This definition is very different to me then healthy mindedness or moderation. It's interesting how we confuse these concepts. Something that immediately came to mind for me was women's roles in modern society. More specifically, women are expected to acquire and maintain an ideal body through extreme forms of self-control and self-restraint. Many women completely cut out foods that they enjoy (and here I am not talking about cutting out foods for moral reasons such as animal cruelty) and restrain from eating in front of other people. These behaviors can manifest into an eating disorder. It is sophrosyne gone wrong. We value self-control in our society, but what is wrong with indulgence? On one extreme it can be bad, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with allowing yourself to do harmless things that are enjoyable. So, how do people get "self-restraint" from "moderation"? Moderation is a completely different concept. I like the "moderation" and "healthy mindedness" interpretations of the word much better, but it seems as if we often confuse self-restraint for healthy mindedness.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Our discussion of Kant has reminded me of Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development. For those that are unfamiliar with this, he proposes 6 stages of moral development:

1. Obedience and punishment driven- people in this stage obey rules and laws to avoid punishment

2. Self-interest driven- people in this stage are concerned with the personal benefits they will gain from doing or not doing something

3. Conformity driven- people in this stage are concerned with societies approval of their actions

4. Authority driven- people in this stage have respect for authority and think laws should always be followed

5. Social Contract driven- people in this stage see laws as a social contract. If the majority thinks there is a law is bad, then it should be changed.

6. Universal ethical principals driven- Laws are only valid if they are fair. In this last stage, people's concepts of right are wrong are independent from law and society.

We move through these stages throughout our development, and not everyone reaches the last stage. I was going to ask you all if you thought Kohlberg was inspired by Kant, but I just read on Wikipedia that he was. Kohlberg was accused of being male-centric in his ideas about morality by Carol Gilligan. Her proposed theory of morality is based in an ethic of caring, rather than an ethic of justice. What do people think of this?

You can be a good person without having a role model

Having a role model probably helps one become a good person, but I don't think it is necessary. You can become a good person through self-reflection and observation. For example, observing events going on around you and reflecting on their outcomes can teach you about morality. Some people in class said that examples like this one, as well as reading books can actually serve as role models, but I think this is expanding the definition of role model too much. I think a role model is a person (and you don't have to know them in real life) who you model your life after and aspire to be like. This isn't even always a positive thing. Deciding what role you want to fill through your own thoughts and reflections may be better than simply aspiring to mimic somebody else. I think we are all inspired by many different people, experiences, books, etc. Most of us probably take little pieces of each thing that inspired us to make ourselves the best we can be-sort of a collaboration of all the things that have inspired us. I do not think this is an example of having role models because it doesn't involve modeling your life after someone.

First Post

This is my blog for a class on Abraham Lincoln's ethics. I am a psychology major at MCLA, but I have taken many philosophy classes through the honors program and as electives. I believe that these classes have made me a better writer and thinker. I am coming into this class not knowing much about Lincoln's life (other than what I read in the David Herbert Donald bio) so I am looking forward to learning more from this class and being challenged by my fellow bloggers.