1.3 Normative Ethics --- The Nature of Morality --- Pluralism

The Nature of Morality

“Pluralism”

Teaching objectives:

  The moral development of China and the West

  The impact of post-colonialism on moral development in the East and West

  The cornerstone of a pluralistic society: tolerance, understanding and dialogue

Suggested teaching period: 5 lessons

Suggested Teaching Method

Lesson One
Teaching objective:
1. Briefly understand the moral and social development of China and the West
Preparation Work:
Teacher shall first prepare
1.  Knowledge Content of the Subject: Similarities and differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in the eyes of Liang Shuming
2.  Knowledge Content of the Subject: The impact of post-colonialism on moral development
Teaching Process:
1.  Teacher distributes the Worksheet: Similarities and differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in the eyes of Liang Shuming. Divide students into groups of 5-6 and give them 10 minutes to discuss the questions set out in the worksheet.
2.  After discussion, choose 3 groups and each group shall send 1 student as representative to present the decision of his/her group in around 2 minutes. He/She shall also give reasons to support their answers. The discussion aims to help students highlight the contradictions, similarities and differences between culture and morality.
3.  After summing up the opinions of the students, teacher distributes the Knowledge Content of the Subject: The moral and social development of China and the West and explains it in approximately 15 minutes.
Lesson Two
Teaching objective:
1. Briefly understand the impact of post-colonialism on moral development in the East and West
Preparation Work:
Teacher shall first prepare
1.  DVD: Episodes 2 and 4 of "On the Road．The 6th series --- Gigi Leung．The Worship of Love in Yunnan, the Nation of Women [雲南女兒國戀愛崇拜]
2.  Reflection: Worksheet: Monogamy － The mainstream marital system
3.  Knowledge Content of the Subject: The impact of post-colonialism on moral development
Teaching Process:
1.  Play the DVD: Episodes 2 and 4 of " On the Road．The 6th series --- Gigi Leung．The Worship of Love in Yunnan, the Nation of Women [雲南女兒國戀愛崇拜]" for approximately 35 minutes. In the episodes, we heard about the praises of a Mosuo woman on the traditional walking marriage system and the criticism on the walking marriage system by a Guangzhou woman married to a Mosuo man.
2.  Distribute the Worksheet: Monogamy － The mainstream marital system and ask the students to complete the worksheet at home and share their answers in the next lesson.
Lesson Three
Teaching objectives:
1.  Continue to analyse the impact of post-colonialism on moral development in the East and West
2.  Understand the cornerstone of a pluralistic society: tolerance, understanding and dialogue
3.  Understand the opinions on global ethics
Preparation Work:
Teacher shall first prepare
1. Worksheet: Monogamy － The mainstream marital system
2. Knowledge Content of the Subject: The impact of post-colonialism on moral development
3. Knowledge Content of the Subject: Pluralism and Global Ethics
Teaching Process:
1.  Ask 3 students to give answers to the questions set out in the Worksheet: Monogamy － The mainstream marital system and ask at least 1 student to raise questions.
2.  Teacher explains the Knowledge Content of the Subject: The impact of post-colonialism on moral development.
3.  Teacher explains the Knowledge Content of the Subject: Pluralism and Global Ethics, and stresses that we should tolerate, understand and communicate when dealing with different cultural values.
Lesson Four
Teaching objectives:
1.  Help students understand the successful example of a harmonious pluralistic society --- Finland
2.  Strengthen students' understanding of "pluralism" through real examples
Preparation Work:
Teacher shall first prepare
1. Worksheet: Example of pluralistic society --- Finland
Teaching Process:
1.  Teacher distributes the worksheet. Divide students into groups of 4-5 and give them 10 minutes to discuss the content of the worksheet. This discussion intends to let the students recognise the relationship between religion and morality.
2.  After the discussion, each group shall send 1 student as representative to present the decision of his/her group in around 2 minutes. He/She shall also give reasons to support their answers. After each presentation, teacher shall ask at least one other group to raise questions.
3.  If the arguments of some groups contradict or differ from each other, teacher may give some instructions or ask students in other groups to respond.
Lesson Five
Teaching objectives:
1.  Help students understand the failure example of building up a harmonious pluralistic society --- Palestine and Israel
2.  Strengthen students' understanding of "pluralism" through real example
Preparation Work:
Teacher shall first prepare
1.  Worksheet: Example of a pluralistic society --- Israel and Palestine
2.  DVD "Expedition --- A journey to Israel and Turkey, Episode 4"
Teaching Process:
1.  Play the DVD: "Expedition --- A journey to Israel and Turkey". Episodes 2 and 3 tell us about the living conditions of the Jews in Israel (the Jews in Jerusalem) and the Palestinians (the Palestinians in Bethlehem).
2.  Distribute worksheet: Examples of pluralistic society --- Israel and Palestine. Divide students into groups of 4-5 and give them 10 minutes to discuss the content of the worksheet. This discussion intends to highlight the relationship between religion and morality.
3.  After the discussion, each group shall send 1 student as representative to present the decision of his/her group in around 1 minutes. He/She shall also give reasons to support their answers. After each presentation, teacher shall ask at least one other group to raise question.
4.  If the arguments of some groups contradict or differ from each other, teacher may give some instructions or ask students in other groups to respond.


Worksheet: Similarities and differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in the eyes of Liang Shuming

Where do Chinese people put their mind, thoughts and spirit to? They spend them on interpersonal and ethical relationship. The so-called “kind father and filial son”, “friendliness and respect between brothers”, “spouse harmony” are all issues related to human and interpersonal relationship. No man is an island and children need to be taken care of or they die of hunger. Chinese people emphasising their culture on ethical relationship and how to get along with people. How should we get along with other people? The key point is: respect each other. Parents’ respect for their sons is kindness while children’s respect for parents is piety. All relationships are developed based on “respect one another”, a good father respects his children. A well-behaved child, likewise, respects his parents. People know their own duties, this is Chinese traditional ethics. For example, when there’s a guest at home. The host shall respect the guest and the guest shall do the same. After all, the Chinese ethics in interpersonal and ethical relationship lies on respecting one another, which is way different from the Westerners. I always describe Westerners’ characters in recent years with the following 2 adjectives: “Self-oriented and egocentric”, and hence their demand for freedom and equality. This is exactly against the Chinese theory which stress on respecting one other. As the traditional Chinese saying goes, “Courtesy education is the foundation of ruling a country”, it implies respecting one another and making inferior oneself, which is completely opposite to being “self-oriented and egocentric”. The Chinese spirit of respecting one another, in my point of view, is a principle that must be followed in a capitalist society. I respect you and you respect me. The host is considerate of the guest and the guest is considerate of the host. Courtesy is the key to get along with the others, and also the spirit of Chinese traditional culture. For the sake of our future, Westerners’ “egocentric” attitude, in my opinion, should gives way to the spirit of courtesy.
Liang Shuming
1.  According to the passage, what is the major difference between the essence of the Chinese and Western cultures?
2.  Why does being “Self-oriented and Egocentric” lead to the demand for freedom and equality?
3.  Chinese people stress interpersonal and ethical relationship. What kind of value(s) do you think they would develop?
4.  Which one, self-orientalism or the stress on interpersonal and ethical relationship, would you identify with and why?

Knowledge Content of the Subject:

The moral and social development of China and the West

Characteristics of morality in Western society：
1.  In Western society, religion is closely related to morality.
2.  As seen from history and traditions, the Church directly interfered society and politics. Therefore religious values are deeply reflected in legal matters.
3.  There are many theologians with high academic achievements and a well-structured Church organisation in western religions. Thus religious opinions on different social and moral issues can be generated.
4.  Western religions are more well-organised and structured. As a result, they may hold consistent attitudes towards different moral issues. Sometimes they even come to the same conclusion, reasoning and standpoint.
5.  Individualism is highly advocated.
Characteristics of morality in Eastern society：
1.  Eastern society has a more consistent view towards “good” and “evil” on the conceptual level. For example, what is “humanity” and what is “righteousness”, etc. However, Eastern moral views talk little about practical moral issues on the realistic level, such as euthanasia and environmental protection, etc.
2.  Many new moral values, such as human rights and discrimination, are all raised and developed in the Western society before being promoted to the East.
3.  Emphasise on interpersonal relationship.
4.  When compared with the Western society, Eastern religions have less influence over moral issues.
5.  Personal moral accomplishment and virtue are especially emphasised. If a person is well-accomplished in self morality and spread this spirit around, he/she can do well to the family, the nation and eventually influence the world.


Knowledge Content of the Subject:

The impact of post-colonialism on moral development

What is “post-colonialism”?
Religion, morality, culture and tradition have mutual impact on each other. Post-colonialism mainly focus on analysing how Western cultural values affect traditional values in the third world.
In the 19th and 20th century, Western countries massively expanded their colonisation in third world countries. At the same time, they introduced their views on economy, culture, values, ethics, morality and politics in the third world, which became the mainstream ideas in those regions. Many traditional values in the third world are seen as relatively inferior or uncivilised. For example, French and English are considered as superior languages while local regional languages are inferior. Similarly, moral values reflected in Western cultures are regarded as advanced. For example, in the 19th century, monogamy in Western countries was seen as civilised while polygyny in China and Islamic countries as well as the values behind were regarded as uncivilised and immoral.
After World War II, many colonies declared independence and every country started to gain independence and autonomy on politics and economy. However, in terms of cultural values, the spirit and ideology in the third world were controlled by Western cultural values. Eastern traditional values and cultural practices are still seen as comparatively inferior. The freedom, stressed by Western values, became the mainstream and was seen as modern; while the responsibility emphasised in the Eastern traditions has gradually been eliminated and was regarded as “old-fashioned”.
As Western culture and moral values dominated the society, or even became the only value to be relied on, hegemony would easily appear, suppressing the development of pluralistic values in a society.


Reflection

Worksheet: Monogamy － The mainstream marriage system

The Chinese polygyny system
Confucianism is the official and mainstream value and ideology in Chinese tradition. Each school under Confucius is very concerned with ethical concepts in a clan. Confucianism hopes to guide people to live a harmonious life and to maintain a stable atmosphere in the society through establishing the social relationship. Therefore as long as the stability of family, clan and society was not breached, many sex partners are allowed for men under the Chinese polygyny system. In Qing Dynasty, the emperor could marry 1 empress, 1 imperial noble consort, 2 noble consorts, 4 consorts, 6 imperial concubines and unlimited honored ladies.
It is very common for the rich men in the upper class to engage in polygynous marriages. / “Walking marriage” of the Mosuo
“Walking Marriage” is a marital practice of the Mosuo, a society that runs on a matriarchal system. Men and women seldom stay in pair during daytime. They will only express their feelings to the one they adore through dancing and singing in gatherings. If a man falls in love with a woman, he will agree with her in daytime and go to her bedroom in mid-night (the room of a Mosuo grown woman is separated from her grandparent’s house or the so-called “family house”). Traditionally, the man will go to the woman’s room by riding a horse. He should not enter from the front door. Instead, he should climb over the window and hang a hat or other belongings at the door. This is to tell other people not to disturb when they are having a date. The man must leave before dawn through the front door. It is disrespectful if the man left after daybreak or after the elders woke up.
“Walking Marriage” is a custom practice of the Mosuo, a small ethnic group in Yunnan. Some Mosuo people adopt the marriage system to increase family labour force. Apart from that, the Mosuo have basically no marriage system. Walking marriage is a practice for couples in love, where the man walks to the woman’s house to maintain their relationship and reproduce the next generation. The key factor in keeping their relationship is love since there is no financial connection involved. Once they are no longer in love with each other, or that they do not really match in character, they can separate any time. Thus they enjoy more freedom than the conventional marriage system. Men and women in the relationship also share an equal status, unlike marriages in other ethnic groups which involves complicated economic and social networks.
The monogamy in Christianity
And he said in answer, Have you not seen in the Writings, that he who made them at the first made them male and female, and said, For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Then let not that which has been joined by God be parted by man.
Chapter 19, Gospel of Matthew