Decision Making and Methodology

Female Speaker: Well, so when we come to our moral decision making, we bring our temperaments. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Right. Female Speaker: And we bring our values and you said there was a third one, what's that? Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yes. Third one is in some ways the biggest. Female Speaker: Alright. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: It's Methodology. A method is a way of asking the right kinds of questions so that you get a good answer, a good moral answer. It's what kinds of questions should you ask. In other words, I can't tell you what is the right behavior for you, because you will answer the questions differently than someone else. Female Speaker: Oh, I see. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: But, you will have to ask the same questions. Female Speaker: Well, this is where the whole principle comes in that two good people can disagree. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: That's right. Female Speaker: I see. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: That's right. Female Speaker: So on method it's like, there is a method to learn how to play the guitar or there is a method to learn how to read and there is various methods on learning how to do those things, other various methods on making a decision. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Oh yes, oh yes, all kinds. Female Speaker: Okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: And they said it way back, Thales was the man who was credited with first introducing philosophy to the world as a Greek. He thought everything was made of the moist. So I got a paper one time and I said, when philosophy came floating into the world with Thales... Female Speaker: Okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: But shortly after him, we had two very interesting people and one of them was named Epicurus. Now, Epicurus is a fellow who thought that the goal of life was to have pleasure. Female Speaker: I know people like Epicurus. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yeah, there are a lot of Epicureans around today, but they are not true Epicureans, because a lot of people that I know that seek pleasure don't seek it the way Epicurus would. See, Epicurus had a caution on it. You seek pleasure, but only to the extent that it doesn't bring pain. Female Speaker: Okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: So, there is a limit on it. Female Speaker: Okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: So Epicurus would never drink too much, Epicurus would always have wine, but he would never drink too much. Female Speaker: Alright. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: He would never eat too much. He would never be a couch potato too much. He would do everything in moderation so that he avoided pain that too much pleasure would bring. Female Speaker: But his number one goal was to be happy. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Was pleasure, yeah. Female Speaker: It sounds like the Epicurean names and I think that's interesting. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Sure, years ago in Chicago there was restaurant called The Epicurean, and my mother and dad and I used to go there once in a while. It was very unusual restaurant, because they used spices and I used herbs and I used all kinds of things and everything was almost in a completely natural condition. Female Speaker: Wow! Dr. Vincent E. Rush: It was always different from all the other restaurants. Female Speaker: Great! So besides Epicurus, who was this other man? Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Well, another fellow came along and he thought Epicurus didn't go far enough. He thought that you might slip over and start having something. So he decided and his name was Epectitus. He decided the only way to be really happy is not to take any pleasure in anything. So Epicurus, and he is, of course, called a stoic, that's where we get the word Stoic Philosophy. Female Speaker: Oh, okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Epicurus said, for example, you have your wallet and somebody steals your wallet. Well, it's much better that you should say, now my wallet has been restored to its rifle owner than that you should suffer the pain of saying, oh my wallet is gone, my credit cards and my telephone card and... don't, don't have any attachment to this. Say, now it's been restored to its rifle owner and you are all set. You don't feel any pain. Female Speaker: Epectitus would have no emotional reaction to this event. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Right. Female Speaker: And Epicurus would react to it because it is reacting with his happiness. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yeah, exactly. Female Speaker: Okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yeah. Female Speaker: Okay. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: But Epectitus, in fact had some ideas that were really, really off the chart. He said, when you kiss your wife, kiss her as if she is dead, and then when she is dead, you won't miss her." Female Speaker: Oh, that's hard, you know. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yeah. So Epectitus carried things very far. What was interesting about his philosophy is that it had very strong influence in the Early Christian Church. Female Speaker: Well, I was going to say that, as you described the Stoicism, I feel like I know cultures of people that are very stoic, they could win the World Series or they could get a new pair of socks and there would be no differentiation. On their wedding days they are just as even tempered as they are in any other day. I didn't realize that Stoicism was a style behavior, I just thought they were different. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Well, they maybe not very gifted emotionally, if I may put it that way-- Female Speaker: Right, but they could also be-- Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yeah, they also could be deliberately trying to keep it leveled. Female Speaker: Would a person choose this? Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Well, not many people choose to be so indifferent, I think, they are more Epicurean mistakes than are Stoic mistakes. Female Speaker: So it's a philosophy of how to live but-- Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Yeah, it's a method. Female Speaker: Right. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: It's a method. It's a one method of getting to moral behavior. Female Speaker: Are there any contemporary methods? Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Oh, yes. Female Speaker: Do people still study this? Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Oh yeah, sure. But in between the contemporary and then -- we had a very interesting fellow named Immanuel Kant and Kant was, I think, probably more influential in the 19th and 20th Century than any other single philosopher. Kant said you have to do your duty. Kant was a kind of fellow that was absolutely rigid in his behavior. I mean, his schedule would be rise at 5:54, eat breakfast at 6:01, I mean, that kind of thing. He never went out of Königsberg all of his life. He lived in Prussia as you might have guessed, as if it said the Prussian mentality. They would say that if Kant walked by your house everyday when the clock struck 15 after the hour in the tower, and one day Kant walked by your house and the clock didn't strike a quarter after, he knew the clock was wrong. That's the way Kant lived. He was very, very rigid, very ordered, very regulated. So you can guess what is he is. He was a fellow who thought that you should always keep the laws, and not only should you keep the laws but -- and that's called Deontology, the technical phrase for that. He is a deontologist and he not only would keep the laws, but he said, you can't enjoy keeping the laws, then you have spoiled it. You have got to keep the laws just for the sake of keeping the laws. So he was very, very purist on this and he felt that you had to behave in such a way that everyone else could behave exactly the same way. So you never made an exception to the law and then everybody could do the same thing. Female Speaker: I see. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: I always wanted to say, I wish I could meet Kant, maybe someday I will, I don't know, and ask him if his wife was in the backseat of his car with bleeding ulcers and going to bleed to death. And he came to a stoplight that was stuck and there was no traffic going either way, but he still stands there, because the law is, stop at the red light. Female Speaker: Well, interesting. I don't think, he might. Dr. Vincent E. Rush: I think, he would, I think he would. Female Speaker: Interesting! Dr. Vincent E. Rush: Oh, yeah. Female Speaker: I don't see why people picked up on his philosophy though because what an ordered situation. Dr. Vincent E. Rush