Virtue, ethics, morality - not a field of study, but a mode of being on which everything else rests

clinical psychologist -> Lack of virtue makes people ill - tortured & tormented - not a biological problem

therapy - forum where people tell the truth, but - Truth is difficult

First title: Virtue as an existential necessity (existentialism = study of being) but you have to modify your being

Modern ppl - fundamentally materialistic - we are extremely powerful from a tech perspective, maybe too powerful for our morality, but blind to certain things, such as the nature of being

we assume that the building blocks of reality are material and fail to notice that our fundamental constituent elements of our own reality are emotional, motivational, dreams, visions, interpersonal relationships, they’re conscious not material

we don’t deal well materialistically with the qualities of being

pain transcends rational argument: it’s just there - pain & consciousness

Buddhists: life is suffering - fundamental dictum, pessimistic but everybody relates to it (students)

Christianity symbol: crucifix - symbol of betrayal by friends, opposition from the state, mortal vulnerability

Judaism - Jews acutely aware of suffering

we’re finite + other forms of extreme limitation imposed on you: physical but also mentally ill and predisposed to cancer; conditions of existence

human being predicated on an extreme limitation: we are what we are

inevitably, the awareness of human being comes with suffering so it poses the question how to conduct your life in the face of suffering

one of the most freeing things that you can realize, not pessimistic

maybe there’s nothing wrong with you at the moment (you’re fortunate), but you may have a family member or partner suffering - this frees you from the false illusion that life can be conducted w/o suffering

jewish commentary about the reasons for creation - a being with the classical attributes for god 3 omni - lack limitation

if you can be / do anything, then you are nothing - you need to be limited, parcelled out into something

when playing games you restrict yourself to a set of rules so that whole new worlds of possibility emerge

the price you pay for being is limitation, the price you pay for limitation is suffering

powerful metaphysical idea: being is not possible w/o limitation

suffering makes you question the validity of life - why you, is it worth it, is being justifiable?

antithesis of virtue

when you say something optimistic, ppl have difficulty believing you

if i said the purpose of life is to be happy, you might find that vaguely comforting, but no chance you’d believe it

if you lived, you know there’d be periods of time when happiness is missing

solzhenytsyn wrote gulag archipelago one of the axes that brought down the sick tree of communist utopia - the idea that we’re meant to be happy is destroyed by the first blow of work forced upon you

(It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power, so that a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him.

One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to.

Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing.)

modern ppl don’t believe in virtue because it sounds religious: our materialism has undermined our ability to believe in a transcendent being

but we can believe in evil

Solzh: the most important event of the 20th century as far as he was concerned was the nurnberg judgement

Nurnberg denied the “i was ordered” defence because certain things are transcendently evil

most people would be within perpetrators - zimbardo + miligard experiments

people are very susceptible to malevolent action

Genesis - apple - better vision b/c we’re designed to distinguish the predatory snakes; coloured vision to detect ripe fruit

you have to be awake to outsmart women and that’s why they’re tangled in there with the serpent and the fruit

when adam & eve wake up the scales fall off their eyes so they’re able to see in a way they could not before; then they see they’re naked

when people are on a stage they never tell you what they think because not only are they afraid of being naked (no defenses) but they are afraid of being metaphysically naked [what about strippers?]

soviets would torture by waking you up at night at getting you naked

once ppl wake up and find out their limitations the first thing they do is cover themselves up; the second is they learn the difference between good and evil

you don’t know how to torture people until you realize that you’re vulnerable (he thought 20 yrs about this ?!?)

under what conditions - watch yourself (20:14)

you recognize your ability for evil on the same path of recognizing your ability for good

cain doesn’t get along with god; everything he touches turns to nothing, whereas abel is a success; cain is a failure so he asks God to do something about it - he’s making himself judge of being - god tells him it’s not His fault, it’s cain’s

cain kills abel in revenge - one of cain’s grandchildren is the first person to make weap