PHIL 502S Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Classical Conditioning, Limbic System, Coevolution
9 May 2018
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Comparative Ethics
2.22.18 Lecture Notes – Mencius, Sprouts Metaphors
- Daid Wog, Ealy Cofuia Philosophy: poits out diffeees etee the
adornment and craft metaphors in the Analects
o Do e ado the asi stuff?
o Do e hae to aft ad reshape it in moral cultivation?
- Mencius inherits this ambiguity in the discussion of the water-flowing-downward and
sprouts-growing metaphors
o Water metaphor – we become ethical by default in the absence of interference
o Sprouts metaphor – we become ethical under proper conditions that are not
ae ut ot oal i tes of statistial feuey
- Aiguities aout the oept of iate
o Coept of iate ioles a udle of haateistis
▪ Inborn
▪ Unlearned
▪ Developmentally fixed (relative immunity from environmental influence)
o Something can be inborn or unlearned but highly receptive to environmental
influence
▪ Ex: inborn capacity to learn human language can be affected by neglect
or a lack of stimulation
▪ Also the man from Song in 2A2 – premature expectations of certain
maturity levels
o Sprouts metaphor suggests that our inborn capacities provide a direction of
development but one that is also influenced by environmental factors
- Different ways for the virtues to develop from the inborn
o Water metaphor – development fixity + inborn capacities
o Sprouts metaphor – inborn capacities that need to be fully developed through
learning and environmental interaction
o Wog’s ie – spouts etapho oes lose to the tuth hee the spout is
not as delicate as a hothouse orchid or as hardy as a weed
- Caalizatio C. H. Waddigto’s oept
o Developmental pathways of inborn traits are like deep trenches
o Pathways of other traits might be shallow
o The epigenetic landscape might serve as a metaphor for biological development
o Cell fates are established in development by epigenetic marks much like a
marble rolls down to the lowest point
o Increasing irreversibility of cell type differentiation as ridges rise between the
valleys
- Why does the difference between the water and sprouts metaphor matter? Why is it
important to disambiguate?
o Important to how we construct our conceptions of moral cultivation
- Meius’s oesatio ith King Xuan – Meius ties to atiate the goth of Xua’s
sprout of compassion
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Document Summary
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