How does a person learn to have high moral standards?

In a webinar moderated by Antoinette Weibel and Otti Vogt, Alejo Sison was featured. Alejo was born in the Philippines. At minute 7, Alejo explained his purpose in life: He wants to not only serve highly educated peers of philosophers through publications in academic research journals. He wants to serve many more people in society and to build a bridge between philosophy, ethics and business.

During the course of the webinar I learned about these 4 topics:

1. What is happiness? What is a good life?
2. What are high moral standards?
3. What development process does a person go through to reach high moral standards?
4. How can we improve the ways people learn to obtain high moral standards? What do we need to do to renew education?

# 1. What is happiness? What is a good life?

From minute 20 Alejo Sison explained that people experience happiness in many different ways. He presented 4 examples:

1. As example 1, Alejo explained that for some people, happiness is pleasure such as a night out with friends drinking beer. At minute 76, Alejo mentioned that the best way to lose pleasure is to look for it. Pleasure will come when you focus on doing something well.
2. For other people happiness is focusing on doing the right things, i.e. doing what is in accordance with the law.
3. For a third group of people, happiness is about wealth. Alejo explained that this has become common in our societies. The goal here is, he explained, to become independent of others, i.e. obtaining so much wealth that you do not need other people — including neighbors, colleagues, the state or anyone else. He elaborated on this by saying that many people have the goal of building a castle / a fortress around themselves, being alone and isolated. Alejo also explained that this does not work. We are here because of other people, he said. We need other people. Human beings are social beings, political beings. In relation to this the philosopher explained at minute 13 that he has 11 older siblings and does not know what it means to be alone.
4. At minute 19 of the webinar, Alejo mentioned that a good life is the inquiry about the good life, i.e. seeking and asking questions to find out what it is. The good life is something we do, something we engage in. In other words, the good life is a journey, an activity, a process. A good life is not a destination.

In the live chat of the webinar, Antoinette Weibel explained what happiness and a good life is for her:

“Happiness, a good life is having enough resources not to worry, being in a loving community and using my talents to enable the good life of others.”

2. What are high moral standards?

From minute 31 of the webinar, Alejo explained that moral capital is based on subjective experience — on knowledge that has accrued through time, through persons, through narratives. This means that only people of a certain kind qualify to be judges of virtues. This makes the field somewhat elitist, he mentioned. Because of this subjective aspect, Alejo added that it stands in strong contrast to modern scientific knowledge — including objective data such as facts, numbers and figures that any person such as a neutral observer can verify.

From minute 9 Alejo Sison explained that virtuous behavior is about having moral capital, i.e having or showing high moral standards. He elaborated on this at minute 37 by saying that virtue means excellence, for example excellence of a person’s actions, habits or character. In other words, virtue is excelling at moral skills. At minute 58, Alejo explained that virtue means being able to navigate role conflicts, i.e. doing the right things in various situations.

At minute 48, Alejo explained that virtues are not values. Virtues are related to nature — not to culture. Human nature is, as the word says, part of nature. Humans beings are animals. We are not made by humans. How do we know that we are part of nature? Because we have bodies. And having bodies means that we have to eat. However, to really thrive, we have to eat the right things, the right amount, in the right ways and at the right times. This is where virtue comes in. At minute 53, Alejo elaborated on this by saying that although human beings are part of nature, we are not only nature / biology. Why? Because biology cannot explain free choice or people’s capacity to make life plans.

3. What development process does a person go through to reach high moral standards?

From minute 30 of the webinar, Alejo Sison explained that people go through different stages to reach high moral standards. In the webinar, he highlighted these 4 stages:

1. Vicious people who like doing evil things. He called them outliers. At minutes 9 and 40, Alejo explained that moral capital cannot be used for evil purposes.
2. People who know what they should be doing. Nonetheless, they experience a weakness of will, which lead them to do what they rationally / intellectually know that they should not be doing.
3. People who know what they should be doing and do that. However, it is painful for them to do that. It requires effort. And inside of them, they do not really have a good feeling. In other words, they would rather be doing something else.
4. Virtuous people who do the right things, enjoy doing the right things and would not do what they do in any other ways.

4. How can we improve the ways people learn to obtain high moral standards? What do we need to do to renew education?

From minute 37 of the webinar, Alejo Sison talked about the moral development process, which can help us develop high moral standards / excellence / virtues. He compared the moral development process to the process of learning a language or learning to play the guitar. A person can become better / improve by doing this:

1. Practicing / doing exercises.
2. Doing repetition.
3. Persevering.
4. Getting instruction.

If a person does all of this and also has great talent, she or he can even become a virtuoso, i.e. a highly skilled artist. As the person grows / develops her or his skills, she / she becomes able to perform with greater ease, pleasure, freedom and flow. Thereby she or he becomes capable of also working creatively and improvising. At minute 42, Alejo explained that the moral development process changes us. It is a maturing process. The work, which a human being makes toward achieving excellence, transforms her or him. He or she becomes aware of standards of excellence that less skilled individuals cannot see / hear / perceive.

At minute 29, Alejo explained that no person can force another person to be happy. No person can force another person to love another human being. At minute 82, Alejo elaborated on this by suggesting that we need to trust freedom. We need a variety of initiatives that people can choose from in order to learn. And then we need to give people freedom to find their own niche, which works for them. No-one knows what is the best thing for another human being.

At minute 104, Alejo also mentioned service learning and the possibility to work with one’s hands as parts of a person’s education. At minute 105, he emphasized the importance of children to play.

Some research about play: