The Greeks have a word for it !

[Prof]

Philotimo [pronounced phil-`lot-tee-moe] is a concept that permeates Greek culture.

It connotes: generosity, good will, honesty, deep and wide respectfulness, living honorably. It is taught by mothers to their children. {Admittedly some teachers educate more effectively than others .}

Philotimo is a sense of right and wrong, and a duty to do what is right.

It includes good will, a sensitivity to the needs of others, showing consideration, a sense of responsibility, caring, and having moral courage. It directs one to think of the less-fortunate; to live for something larger than oneself.

It denotes some imperatives also: Do not bring dishonor on your community! When faced with evil, choose the good ! Be compassionate! Avoid selfishness: go beyond your immediate personal desires and thus live with personal honor!! Be truthful and sincere! Aim for reciprocity in your interactions! Give, without expecting a return, in a spirit of generosity!

[And this is how it's used in a sentence.]

With regard to any policy, or possibly-questionable course of action, ask: ""Where is the philotimo in that?"

And - furthermore - it has its own enforcing mechanism :
When parents teach it to their children they add ..."If you violate philotimo, you disgrace your family!!!!"
So the concept includes its own sanctions for moral digression.


Would that we had a single concept like that in the English tongue ! Wouldn't that be cool?!
Let's absorb it into English.
{p.s., I, who propose this, am not a Greek.}

Along that line of thinking ....maybe the word philotimo - as is - ought to be taught in college and university Ethics courses.
Would that be an improvement??
Packed into that one word, philotimo, are even more meanings. Included are the concepts: caring, sensitivity to the needs of others, and consideration.

This one word connotes so much of what is meant by Ethics! Yet omitted {so far}, seem to be the ideas of cooperation and collaboration on worthwhile goals. And, that we all have a moral obligation to be happy (as well as good.)

Now, after I interview people raised in Greece as to what the word means to them, I add the further inquiry: Did you teach it to your children? The responses I get to this query are so interesting!

.
Too bad we, in the USA, aren't taught such a concept in our early formative years. Would we then in college need to study ethical theory

[Belinda]

I have never met anyone who lacked the qualities that Prof describes. Sometimes people I know or knew seem not to be considerate and they are simply ignorant. Still, it is a good idea that the qualities should be bundled together under a name such as Philotimo , and deliberately taught as such.

[Prof]

Hi, Belinda

Yes, as has been observed here before, goodness is the default position for human individuals.

Acculturation that teaches children to worship money as a god tends to corrupt them. On the TV, and in other media, they see a constant menu of violence, and that corrupts them also.

We are primates, and we do get competitive, but that competition can be a friendly contest where the entire community wins, or it can be a ruthless rivaly, which is in nobody's true self-interest.

"The measure of our life is how much we have been of service to others."

[Belinda]

Prof, parenting is terribly important. If only humans could be socialised as simply as pet dogs !

Parenting must be taught in schools. The present generation of parents is itself contaminated with consumerism and generally not fit enough. Morality needs an injection from science and the arts which are taught, not by parents ,but by education authorities.

Morality used to be taught by religious authorities and folk traditions .Those are now largely defunct except where they have become politicised.

Prof, do you have any information about how morality and in particular parenting is being taught in schools in the free 'west'?