As with my last selection of Carson McCullers, something drew me into picking up Ethics, Theory and Practice by M. Velasquez and C. Rostankowski and opening to the first page. From there, drawn into this textbook by the story given of Tobias Schneebaum, a NYC scholar who chose to live among a primitive tribe and became one of them to a point unfathomable to our way of life:
I stood and watched, no word or sound from me, but shaking, trembling with cold, my breathing coming in gasps. No time was passing, but seven men lay there dead, bellies and chests open, still pouring out hot blood, heads crushed and dripping brain, while women huddled far in a corner, chanting in deep moans and holding the fright-filled faces of their children into the red paint of their breasts. (p. 2)
Starting the book with this example of becoming so involved in a different culture, adapting to the point of cannibalism, is the easiest way to force the question of ethical behavior.
The authors then go on to explain Shneebaum’s reasons, mainly a bond of affinity and need to be accepted, as emotional motivation not being in keeping with the true nature of ethical behavior as it develops and changes within a society. In other words, ethics are not based on mere emotional need, but on a clearer concept of good and evil, right and wrong. Where these are defined is where ethics are established.
Immediately following a basic Philosophy course a couple years ago, I was sorely tempted to stray from the path to diploma by taking an Ethics course that was offered on campus. Maybe now, sans instructor and classroom of students, I can still stumble through it on my own.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology