Ethics
A brief introduction to the human hearted approach to ethics
Developing an ethical outlook on life, and trying to live it out as part of normal life, is a crucial part of the human hearted way.
Human hearted ethics based on promoting flourishing rather than being command based:
What do we mean by ethics ? In the modern world ethics and morality are often seen as a set of rules, such as tell the truth’, ‘do not steal’ etc. which must be followed. This rule and command based approach is a continuation (in the West) of a religious model of morality. That model sees ethics as a set of rules that are backed by the commands of God, and which people are punished for breaking. As the importance of Christianity has declined in the West people have increasingly tried to rethink morality and ethics. Unfortunately this rethinking has mostly been about which authority’s rules and commands should replace those of God, rather than whether a command based approach is the only possible form of ethics. Various efforts have been made to justify new universal rules based on ‘reason’, ‘science’, the ‘spirit of the people’, and so on.
The human hearted way is different. Rather than seeking externalised rules and commands for behavior the human hearted way focuses on how we can live best as human beings by developing our own potentialities. In other words the human hearted ways seeks to maximise the chance of human beings flourishing and living a good life. How can humans flourish ? By living out as much of their best potential as they can. Ethics, for the human hearted way therefore, is not about discovering rules and commands, it is about working out the best way to support yourself and the people (and other life forms) around you to flourish.
Flourishing of all; not just an isolated individual
As we are social beings, our flourishing occurs mostly in relation to others through building positive and fulfilling connections. Even seemingly highly ‘individualistic’ skills, like being a musician or a professional athlete, or a stamp collector, depend on the work of others to create the appropriate environment, and acknowledge and respect the efforts of the individuals engaged in those activities. Whilst we all have our own distinctive individuality, interests and abilities, our flourishing nearly always occurs in a social context. Perhaps only a genuine hermit could, perhaps, claim to have a personality that was not mostly constituted through relations with others, and to be flourishing in a way which did not depend on others.
A human hearted ethics is about acting in a way that is consistent with both our own and everyone else’s flourishing. It can involve the tiniest things, such as giving way to allow a fellow harried driver to enter traffic, or smiling and having friendly demeanor towards a shop assistant. When understood this way we can see there is an ethical component to almost every social interaction we engage in. There is an ethical component to almost every action we take. It always involves seeking a balance between our social relations and our individual goals. It never involves either completely subordinating others to our individual goals, or completely abandoning our individuality to meet social needs.
The human hearted path to self realisation or fulfillment is one that is social, rather than putting the individual ahead of society, it seeks to realise our personality in the context of others. We are not isolated individuals. In fact our personalities are constituted by our actions in relating to others. Thus the answer to how to live the good life; realizing our potential as human beings, provides the answer to how to live an ethical life; by using human heartedness as a guide to action in daily life.
In relation to ethics the human hearted way proposes using our human heartedness; our social senses of sympathy and compassion etc., as a guide. Our human heartedness can provide a basis of sympathy and support for others, from which we can build ideas of the best way to relate to them.
A human hearted ethics accepts uncertainty and builds on potential:
It is not that our human heartedness will automatically tell us the best thing to do, although sometimes it does. Rather we can accept that we have it, cultivate it, and use it as a guide to how to best interact with others. For instance our human heartedness might provide us with the empathy to realize that other people have feelings too, (such as the driver trying to enter traffic or the not very competent shop assistant) and so should be treated with basic dignity to respect that. Our reason, and training, education and upbringing, can then all build on this to develop some general rules to follow; ethical rules such as treat all people with dignity.
We all possess this potential; and it is this potential which, when activated and combined with reason (and/ or education and cultivation of one’s human heartedness ) that, in the context of the human hearted tradition, leads to ethical actions. We are not born with a natural ethical stance, but a potential based on our human heartedness. A potential we can choose to realise as much as we can.
Guidelines more than rules or commands:
Human heartedness can only be a guide rather than a strict set of rules. A person guided by human heartedness will want to respect the uniqueness of whoever they are interacting with, and let their human heartedness guide them to an appropriate way to relate to that person. So, for instance, human heartedness might lead someone to support a timid person to be more assertive, support an overly domineering person to be more respectful of others, support an artistic person to develop their art, and an athletic person to develop their athleticism; although always within a context of respect and care for others. There cannot be a one size fits all approach.
Nonetheless some very general guides can be developed. We provide below some very basic principles that are based on the human hearted tradition. They are offered as general guides rather than a form of official statement of the ethics of the human hearted tradition. We hope to stimulate more debate and discussion with people joining the human hearted tradition; and so the guides below are more of an introductory starting point. Its better to think of them as some human hearted tools for our ethical tool kit rather than command based rules.
Seven human hearted ethical guidelines:
1 The Decision: Making a deliberate decision to focus more on ethical living.
Today’s society offers any number of criteria for living: economic efficiency, materialist consumerism, being a winner, being physically attractive, keeping up with the neighbors, etc. People don’t usually decide to pick one such criteria as their key guide, but slide into accepting such criteria from society as part of their developmental process.
The human hearted way is to choose ethical living, human heartedness, as the key criteria for living. Of course most of the people who make this choice don’t always succeed in realising it. The author’s of this website admit they have fallen short of their own ambitions often enough and have had to remind themselves of their best potential, pick themselves up again, and start again.
Nonetheless the start of a more ethical approach to living is to actually decide to make that a criteria for decision making so it appears as the first step here.
2 Connecting with others: Connecting in a way that supports others to be the best version of themselves
The core idea of human heartedness is to utilize our potentials for sympathy, compassion, respect etc. for others to guide and inspire us in relating to others. The human hearted path to self realisation includes building whatever connection is possible with others in a way that it is supportive. This means having enough empathy and sympathy to respect the other person’s individuality, for instance if they prefer contemporary music to classical supporting that choice, (after some polite discussion of alternatives !) and doing so in a way that is consistent with respect and care for all people, for instance discouraging excessively loud playing of music. This may seem like a trivial example. But human heartedness is something that should be capable of being lived out in daily life. It involves supporting others as who they are, but also supporting basic care and respect for all in the process.
The other aspect of human heartedness is that it is not a rule to be carried out, but a potentiality that anyone can draw upon. Drawing upon it is part of one’s self development, and building it can lead to a happier and more fulfilling life. Recent studies of people who engage in acts of kindness show this leads to an increase in happiness.
3 Socially positive self realisation: Pursuing socially positive self realisation not hyper individualism.
Ethical living includes self realization: Self realization includes realizing one’s social potential by acting ethically to support the development of others. It is about developing the self as a supportive member of society rather than defined against or in competition with others.
Realizing one’s own potential, social, intellectual, sporting etc. is necessary to living the good life. In the absence of Gods and other external criteria, realizing our human potential is the path to a fulfilled and happy life. So ethical living does not mean denying or repressing the best of the self, and, in fact, includes developing it; in its simplest terms it means developing our capacity for human heartedness, as discussed above, in harmony with other more individualistic potentials. This is perhaps the area where the human hearted way most differs from the values of modernity: self development (or realisation or fulfilment etc.) is social and ethical and so means something completely different to isolated egotism, hyper individualism, the self before others, etc. Cultivation of the self cannot be achieved unless it is harmonised with cultivation of the best in others.
4 Contribute to world and universe: Acting in a way consistent with building a world and universe where all may flourish.
The human hearted path to self realisation involves connecting with others in a positive and supportive way. The full development of this can potentially extend to a unified system based on care and respect for all life forms. Ethics is not simply about the correct answer for a situation that may arise. It is about creating the self ethically (based on realising the potential one has) through interaction with others, and thereby creating the most ethical and widespread community it is possible to create. The ultimate goal of the human hearted way is an ethical community that extends across all life forms. In practice, in daily life, this means supporting others in a way that is consistent with the same support being offered to all.
5 Actions not slogans: Ethical living involves daily actions more than producing slogans
Ethical living is part of developing the self and so it happens, or can happen, on a daily basis through every interaction we engage in. It is much more an accumulation of thousands of small acts, which make a person, than one or two grand actions. Ethical discourse in the human hearted tradition is about what to do, in whatever situation a person finds themselves in, as parent, child, employer, employee, citizen, non citizen, customer, shopkeeper, and so on. It is not about finding a perfect formula of words, and otherwise living one’s life without any effort at human heartedness.
6 Accepting imperfection: Ethical living involves accepting and managing imperfection while retaining hope: Human heartedness does not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Human heartedness is a way to develop ethics and meaning in a world where there are no ethical certainties; no rules that are commanded by an infallible God, an infallible reason, or some other commanding force. Through human heartedness our sociability can be the path to a more fulfilling life based on human hearted self realisation. Human heartedness is actually based on imperfection. It is about accepting there are no perfect solutions and still finding a good way to live based on human heartedness.
So cultivating human heartedness wont make someone into a perfect person. But it will make their life, and the lives of people connected to them, better. And whenever someone falls short of their goals the knowledge that we still have our human hearted potential offers a basis for hope that we can do better. A human hearted person does not denounce herself, or others for being imperfect, but seeks to find the better path based on human heartedness. If we cannot accept our imperfections, and accept our mortality and other limitations, we remain in danger of succumbing to fantasies of perfect leaders and perfect ideologies. We also remain in danger of attacking those who are doing their best and/or working with their flaws rather than supporting them. This risk includes our own negative self talk towards ourselves. Human heartedness helps us retain hope and avoid letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
7 Connecting to political actions: The human hearted way connects to political ideas.
We have talked about practicing human heartedness in everyday life. And this is all anyone can do; be as human hearted as they can however supportive or unsupportive the circumstances they face. A human hearted person will also naturally be able to see that there is, both near and far, suffering and injustice beyond their individual ability to address. Indeed someone who has been cultivating their human heartedness would have developed their empathy and sympathy and so be more likely to see beyond newspaper headlines like ‘unemployment up’ ‘famine in foreign country’ to realise the suffering involved.
So, of course, the human hearted way leads to support for a political program. This is not really an ethical principle in itself. But it is important to note that while there are limits to what can reasonably be expected of a human hearted person under the heading of ethical living this does not mean abandoning a political vision as well. It simply means that while ethics and politics may overlap they are not the same thing. In politics the human hearted vision of a positive connection with all living beings leads to a political vision which supports basic dignity and rights for all people and life forms. But while people’s basic dignity should be respected everywhere this is not the same as enforcing an ethical vision. The human hearted way is based on persuading people and asking them to open up their hearts to the best that is in them. It does not support commanding people to behave in a certain way. The human hearted tradition is about exploration, persuasion and example. It is not about issuing commands or the use of force, or insisting that there is only one true way to live etc. .