LP] Vilna E S aTIOC2a Mat YVD) Vol. 80, No. 3 MARCH 1975 CONTENTS EDITORIAL: INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY 3 CAN MORALS BE TAUGHT 4 by H. J. Blackham FORUM: PARAPSYCHOLOGY. 6 FOR THE RECORD . 10 by the General Secretary DISCUSSION: MARXISM AS A RELIGION 13 YOUR VIEWPOINT . 17 SOUTH PLACE NEWS. 21 COMING AT CONWAY HALL 2, 23 Published by SCAM MACE ETERCAL SOCRETT Conway Hall Humanist Centre Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY OnnCERS: General Secretary: Peter Cadogan Lettings SecretarylHall Manager: Iris Mills Hon. Registrar: Rose Bush Hon. Treasurer: C. E. Barralet Editor, "The Ethical Record": Eric Willoughby Address: Conway Hall Humanist Centre Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. (Tel: 01-242 8032) Coming at Conway Hall Sunday, March 2 11.00 am—Sunday Meeting: PETER CADOGAN on Individuality, Status and Hierarchy. Bass-baritone solos: Cyril Dight- maker 6.00pm—Bridge Practice in the Library. Scrabble group also forming. 6.30pm—Concert in aid of the Musician's Benevolent Fund. Haffner String Quartet. Beethoven F Op. 18 No. 1, Fmi Op. 95, Csh mi, Op. 131. Speaker: Alvar Liddell Tuesday, March 4 7.00 pm—Discussion: First in series on Deviations from the Norm. Dr R. N. Rapoport introducing Variations in Family Structure Sunday, March 9 11.00 am—Sunday Meeting: PETER CRONIN on The Philosophy of Samuel Beckett. Soprano solos: Jean Aird 3.00 prn—Forum: The Invisible Minority. Film and panel of speakers including Barbara Britton and Keith Gillies 6.00 pm—Bridge and Scrabble 6.30 pm—Concert: Amici String Quartet. Mendelssohn D Op. 44 No. 1, Berkeley No. 2, Beethoven Efl Op. 74 (Continued on page 23) CURRENT SPES TUBLICATIONS THE SECULAR RESPONSIBILITY Marghanita Laski 10p THE ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY James Hemming 10p THE BREAKDOWN OF GREAT BRITAIN Leopold Kohr 10p MAN AND THE SHADOW Laurens van der Post 10p WHAT ARE EUROPEANS? G. K. Young, CB, CMG, MBE 10p THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY FROM PAGAN AND JEWISH BACKGROUNDS G. A. Wells 20p HUMANITY AND ANIMALITY Edmund Leach 10p THE USES OF PAIN Jonathan Miller 10p 3-}p postage for one-7p for two or more THE ETHICAL RECORD Vol. 80, No. 3 MARCH 1975 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society EDITORIAL Individuals and Society INDIVIDUALITYis the cherished virtue of mankind which distinguishes humanity from what is called the animal kingdom. The opposite of individuality is the behaviour exhibited by such animals as sheep. Yet individuality 'must be tempered with responsibility, otherwise chaos ensues. And there can be few better examples in Britain of how individuals combine to make a group, than South Place. The message came across quite clearly in the example of our Open Door programme which was broadcast on TV at the end of January. The programme was a splendid example of individual talents mak- ing up a worthwhile team effort. At South 'Place, there is an enormous variety of views, as has been shown to extremity on some past occasions. Yet we manage to sur- vive as a family-like group, with a long-standing nucleus of people. Very soon now, all the individuals who comprise South Place will have to come to corporate decisions which vitally affect the Society's future. That will be the time for idiosyncracies and the worst features of individuality to be put aside, in the interests of the body of peo- ple as a whole. Individual responsibility is the absolute basis of democracy, and many countries recognise this by using the referendum. Britain pro- poses such a referendum on the important Common Market issue, and the organisation of this referendum will indeed be interesting. Life is about relationships between individuals. Those who preach theological dogmas present theories about relationships between in- dividuals and some idea of a non-human being, sometimes presented as an individual, sometimes as a three-in-one entity or even more. Those of us who say we care about mankind show our concern largely by the way we regard the individuals around us. The prob- lems of the world can seldom be cured in a corporate action, but rather by treating large numbers of individuals. To a certain extent, social work has developed in 'Britain away from the youth group, or special group, toward individual counselling, and the Humanist move- ment contributes toward this. Conversely, however, encounter and therapy groups can be useful in the treatment of emotional and mental conditions. But whatever its nature, the freedom of the individual should be in the forefront of our minds. There are many assaults on it today. And there will be more. 3 Can Morals Be Taught? BY 11. J. BLACKHAM THE ANSWER is yes, if by "morals" is meant the behaviour required and expected by a particular society, since this is the behaviour learned from infancy. When the question is raised, however, what is usually meant is rather different: can everyone be taught to know what is right and always do what is right because it is right, even when there is no witness? Not only the answer, but also the question, is dubious. The Greeks thought of virtue as a kind of knowledge, like the technical know-how of any of the arts, so that it could be taught as the art of living well, a trans- missible skill which assured a standard level of performance. The Greeks gave very different answers about this moral knowledge and skill, and formed rival moral sects; but they assumed that man was rational and would seek his own good when he knew what it was. It was St Paul who said "the evil that I would not, that I do". It was left to Freud to ex- pose the dynamics of human behaviour as having a rationale that was by no means the pursuit of rational ends. On his model, the energies of men come from libido, the impersonal vital impulse, the id unconscious and therefore non-rational; the ego supplies the prudential component which pays rational attention to reality; and the super-ego is the inner monitor, unconsciously carrying on and enforcing the restraints and prohibitions of the parents, the representatives of society. This tripartite structure is not a natural harmony, but a breeder of conflicts, mostly suppressed and un- conscious. Freud's model does not survive as a true representation, but it destroyed the two-dimensional earlier sketches. Moral Teaching The teaching of morality today starts from a study of moral develop- ment, as elaborated in the findings of developmental psychology. Lawrence Kohlberg of Harvard, carrying forward the work of Piaget and Dewey, is generally regarded as the most thorough investigator in this field. He claims that empirical research has established an invariable sequence of six stages of moral development in the individual, and that these are the same in all cultures. The six stages are identified as follows: I. Orienta- tion to obedience and punishment. 2. Orientation to exchange and re- ciprocity. 3. Orientation to approval and to pleasing and helping others. 4. Orientation to doing duty, showing respect for authority, and main- taining the given social order. 5. Orientation to agreements, contracts, rights, welfare. 6. Orientation to conscience and to principles of choice involving appeal to logical consistency and universality. There are three main phases here: in the first there is little regard for persons or stan- dards; in the second there is concern to fulfil social expectations; in the third, universal rights, duties, standards are acknowledged. The core concept is justice, and the stages mark progressive understanding and acceptance of the demands of justice. Although the claim is that this sequence is followed invariably in all cultures, at least stage 4, the way in which behaviour is directed in the given social order, will vary in different cultures, and in successive periods of the same culture. Studies have been made of the close dependence of the structure of personality on a particular culture, the "modal person- ality" of that culture. In European history, four successive ways in which behaviour has been socially directed can be distinguished. Authority and tradition were the main controls throughout the middle ages whilst the Church was unchallenged and monopolised education and administration; 4 the canon law and the confessional were principal means of this regula- tion. The Protestant disengagement of the individual conscience from the authority of the Church, in association with new economic opportunities and the rise of the bourgeoisie, developed the "Protestant ethic", the ideal of stewardship and of self-help which induced an "inner-direction"- in.: stilled by parents as the monitor of endeavour in an enterprising world. These producers of affluence and their virtues in time gave way to con- sumers needed to keep the wheels of industry turning, other-directed, keeping up with the loneses in "conspicuous consumption". Today in this country, with sizable immigrant communities and complex problems, social policy depends on self-direction; the social services, including edu- cation, try to get and enable each individual to make his own morally responsible decisions. Each is expected and helped to reach stage 6 in Kohlberg's scheme, moral maturity. Russian Method By contrast with this European and North American trend, the USSR insists from earliest infancy on a group-directed morality; the interests and the point of view of the group are paramount, and every group repre- sents the interests and point of view of Soviet society building socialism under the direction of the Party. Since the war educational policy has jumped from an attempt to re- establish in the schools with the authority of the nation the Christian tradition as the "character building" influence, to a modern programme of moral education based on an understanding of moral development and the aim of moral autonomy for each child.