Human Excellence - Section 1
Starting Point

The Starting Point is You

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You may already be an Excellent Human Being

and don’t realize what a great thing it is that you have achieved in your life.

 

Or you may be well on your way to becoming an Excellent Human Being

and just need some help in understanding how to make moral choices.

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Human Excellence comes from your growth on your life journey.

Excellence is the continuous effort to be moral,

to try to do or say the right thing, at the right moment in your life.

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No human being is perfect, and so you will make mistakes.

 

If you try to learn from your mistakes

and do better the next time you are faced with a moral situation,

you are an Excellent Human Being.    

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Excellence is not perfection, in the sense of never making a mistake.

 

An Excellent Human being is perfect in their imperfection.

 

In one sense you never get there,

because you will face moral decisions your whole life,

and thus, you must make the next moral choice you face.

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But in another sense, each time you make the best moral choice possible,

you are an Excellent Human Being, in that decision,

given your age, your situation, at that given moment,

because you tried to make the best moral choices possible

given your situation.

 

Happiness

 

When you achieve Human Excellence,

you achieve happiness.

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One of the goals of this course is to help you become aware of your excellence,

so that you can find, or become aware of, your happiness.

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Through Excellence you will create deep, satisfying happiness, for yourself,

and for those you encounter.

You will also help create a flourishing civilization here on earth.

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Please allow me to help you on your life journey of excellence and the quest for happiness.

 

Ethics Overview

 

Ethics is the field of study which helps you understand your own moral beliefs,

and provides you tools to help you use this knowledge

to make better moral choices.

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You must make your own moral choices,

you and you alone. 

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However, you are not alone in the world.

You were born into specific circumstances in life.

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As a child you were taught about right and wrong,

at home, in school, church, sports, and many other settings.

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More importantly,

you experienced events which shaped your moral decision making.

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The observations of the moral actions of those around you,

during your childhood,

influence your moral decision making as much, if not more,

than what was said to you.

In other words, actions speak louder than words.

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At some point in your life, when you grow up, mature, become an adult,

which happens at different ages for different people based on their life circumstances,

your moral choices become all your own.

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When you grow up,

all of the things which happen in your childhood

influence your moral decision making.

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Many factors will continue to influence the moral choices you make in your life.

Your moral beliefs are always evolving.

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How do you know if what you were taught,

what you experienced,

and thus, what you learned about morality,

is right or good?

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Human history is full of many things which, at the time, appeared to be morally correct,

to groups of people, within different cultures,

and which now are generally, and some almost universally,

considered morally wrong.

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Pause for a moment and consider some of the things humans did to each other,

things which seemed perfectly acceptable at the time, 

which today are considered wrong.

 

There are so many things, such as slavery,

the rights of women and minorities,

the way various cultural groups treat each other,

or violence and war as a means of power and control. 

 

In many parts of the world today, sadly, there are individuals and groups of humans

who are treating other humans in a manner which is morally wrong.

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This is an ethics course

and it is designed to help you make good moral choices,

so that you can be happy.

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The Purpose of Ethics - Happiness

 

At its core ethics is about your happiness. 

It is as simple as that.

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If you want to be happy,

be good.

Do your best to always make the right moral choices.

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Ethics is about the search for the “good life” that leads to happiness and fulfillment.

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The good life is about pleasure and having enough to eat,

but it is so much more than that,

just as happiness in life involves more than the basics for survival.

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Ethics is about how you and I attain internal, deep fulfillment in life,

contentment, full actualization,

and the realization of our potential as human social beings.

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Happiness is the same goal for every human being,

and it can be attained by different people

in many different ways.

 

However, while very human being is a unique individual,

and will find happiness in different activities or things,

there is one common factor.

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This kind of deep, lifelong, fulfilling happiness

is always, and only, found in an ethical life, a moral life,

in moral words and deeds.

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So, while happiness can be attained in a wide variety of ways for different people,

each and every way of attaining happiness must be morally good or right.

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Just as every human requires food and water for survival,

every human needs to be morality good to be happy.

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My happiness and your happiness

is the goal of the individual quest to achieve Human Excellence.

If you become an excellent human being, you will be happy. 

It is simple and it is true.

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Happiness

 

I started with the word happiness,

because it is a simple notion.

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I want to be happy.  You want to be happy.  Every human being wants to be happy.

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I will continue to use the word happiness, because of its simplicity.

But, as we all know, it is not that simple.

So, I need to briefly explain what I mean by happiness.

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Flourishing is a better, richer word for the happiness found in excellence.

Telos is a better word to express the relationship between happiness and excellence.

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The telos of Human Excellence is flourishing.

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Flourishing

 

The happiness found in being an excellent human being is

deep, personal, rich, satisfying, enduring, and complete. 

 

Other similar concepts range from bliss, and nirvana, to heaven and paradise. 

 

The ancient Greeks used the word Eudaimonia, which was the highest human good,

a continuous stage of being,

which fulfills every human need and desire,

or rather, is in everything a human being seeks or desires.

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We desire what will make us happy, in a very deep sense of happiness.

 

Happiness is what we desire for its own sake 

rather than for the sake of something else, or as a means toward some other end.

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It can be explained using the example of money.

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Money, in the sense of currency, coin or metals used for exchange,

is purely a means to an end.

You cannot eat or drink it or live inside it for shelter from the elements.

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Money is a means of exchange, used to buy food, water and shelter,

things necessary for our survival, as well as for buying other things humans desire.

It is what money buys that satisfies desire or provides happiness. 

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One of the great challenges of happiness,

is that humans are imperfect,

we sometimes make mistakes.

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We sometimes desire and acquire things which we think will make us happy,

only to discover that they do not make us happy,

or they bring us pleasure in the short term but misery in the long term.

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In this lesson plan I will provide you with a simple way to help avoid these mistakes,

using ethics to help you make good moral choices.

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Flourishing is Happiness for a Whole Lifetime.

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The best way to understand flourishing it to think about someone you are close to,

someone you love very much.

Maybe it is a parent, a brother or sister, grandparent.

Maybe someone who raised you,

an aunt, uncle or cousin

or someone who has helped you through life,

or a spouse, your child, or a very good friend.

 

Think of someone who means a lot to you,

someone special whom you love deeply.

Picture them for a moment and think about how you feel about them.

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What do you want their life to be like?

How do you want them to be treated?

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If you had the power to influence what happens to them in their whole life,

if you had one wish you could make come true for them,

what would you want for them,

what would you want for their life?

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Do you want them to be happy?

Do you care about what happens to them in life?

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Do you hope that they are treated well by others,

that good things happen to them and

that they are good people and are happy?

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You were once living inside of your mother’s body,

and then were an infant at one point in your life,

an infant in the arms of your mother,

immediately after you were born.

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Imagine the love and good wishes your mother had for your life,

the hopes and dreams she had for you.

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She, in her heart, wants you to be happy.

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Flourishing is happiness for you and everyone around you,

not just in a fleeting moment, or for a couple of days, weeks or years,

but for a lifetime, for all.

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All human beings want to be happy,

and for those close to us be happy.

 

Everyone wants to have a good life.

 

All human beings want the world to be a good place.

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It is our core nature, built into our DNA, our souls and our minds.

 

Happiness for every human being is the goal of ethics.

 

Ethics is about getting along with others,

how we treat each other,

and how we treat ourselves.

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Ethics is about making the world a good place to live

for ourselves and others

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Imagine what the world would be like

if we, all of us, treated everyone

like we wish the person or people who are very special to us,

whom we love,

would be treated their whole life.

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We would all flourish together.

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Telos

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It is in your nature to want to be happy.

Happiness is a part of the nature of every human being.

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A way to understand the human happiness to be found in ethics

is through an idea called teleology.

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Teleology is about how something’s purpose or goal,

is built into its design.

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Rather than simply having a target like goal,

humans have a telos, happiness, built into the goal or

which is a goal built into our nature, or built into our design. 

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As an example, a saw’s telos is to cut, it is designed to cut. 

Its purpose is to cut, and it is designed to attain the goal of cutting.

The telos of a hammer is to pound nails, and a pencil to write.   

 

Think about this for a moment

and think about all the other things humans design

for a specific purpose.

 

It is possible to use a stapler for hammering in a nail, but it would be difficult,

just as a hammer could be used to put a staple in, but would do a poor job of it.

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Something in the design, in the very nature of the thing, makes it what it is,

is integrally tied to its purpose

and is what it is best at.

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The pencil is defined by its purpose or goal, writing,

and is best at its telos, writing. 

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A thing is what it is, based on its end, its purpose, or its telos.  This is its nature.

 

This can be found in the natural world as well.

 

Evolution has shaped the telos of animals and plants.

 

A lion is designed to hunt.

Everything, from the lion’s sense of smell and hearing,

to its strength, speed, claws and teeth,

are essential to its survival and thriving.  

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This telos design can be relational in nature as well. 

A tree leaf, trunk, branch and root are designed to help it prosper,

but also supply homes for birds and other wildlife.

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Plants are designed to supply oxygen to animals,

which in return provide carbon dioxide for the plants. 

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Grasses provide grain for nourishment.

Birds pollinate plants.

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A thing’s purpose is based on its “nature” or what makes it unique.

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Trees have intrinsic qualities, as do dogs, birds, and all animals and plants.

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Things have a nature that keeps them alive,

makes them good at something,

which helps them flourish.

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The eagle’s eyesight,

the lion’s strength and hunting ability,

the antelope’s speed,

are all parts of their nature.

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All of these features are a part of the animal or plant’s nature,

for survival and flourishing,

individually and as a group or species.

 

Human Nature

 

What is your nature and my nature?

What is the nature of humans?

What features do humans have for survival and flourishing? 

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Take a minute or two to reflect on this question?

This is one of the “Big questions” of life.

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Humans are unique creations in the world, with a body, mind and soul.

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While humans have a body with a specific design which, like other animals,

has certain features that make humans skilled at certain things,

we are different from the rest of creation.

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Humans have a mind,

are able to reason, reflect and analyze

the world around them.

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Humans have a soul,

with a deep and complex emotional part,

found in the caring and loving connection to others.

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Humans have self-awareness and free will, the ability to choose.

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Among the many things humans can choose,

is the ability to choose how to be happy, or rather,

how to flourish.

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Surviving and thriving for the many other life forms is simple.

It is a matter of the nature of their design,

matching the environment which they inhabit.

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Individual animals and plants that excel within their environment,

that is, those which are excellent in the things necessary

to thrive and prosper in the place they inhabit, are happy. 

That is, they flourish.

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Nature, through the process of evolution,

or reproductive variations in individuals,

modifies the design of plants and animals

to develop excellence in their nature.    

 

For humans, happiness is found in moral excellence.

 

Humans use their animal instinct,

as well as their minds, and reason,

and their souls, and emotions,

to flourish.

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The human purpose in life is to be happy. 

Not pleasure or selfish interest, but flourishing in and as a community,

as rational, social, emotional beings, with our family, friends, and each other.

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To survive and prosper the eagle uses its eyesight to spot prey,

as the wolf and lion use their speed and strength to hunt,

and the tree uses its leaves to take in sunlight.

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Humans need to properly use their free will, their choices in life,

to choose to be morally good

to survive, be happy and to flourish,

individually and as a species.

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It is our telos, our nature to be morally good.

 

Our best, human excellence,

is found in treating ourselves and others morally and properly. 

 

The saw cuts wood and the hammer pounds nails.

They can be used for other things, but they will not do well at them,

they will not excel.

 

Animals and plants have features which allow them to survive and prosper in a specific place.

If there is a change in their environment,

and their features are not suited to it,

they will die off as a group.

 

Animals and plants are subject to the random variations of nature for their survival.

 

Humans can adapt more readily to environmental changes than most species can.

However, this species adaptation is often at the expense of individual lives lost,

or it may only be survival, not happiness or flourishing.

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Happiness, or flourishing, requires ethics,

humans being morally good, even in times of change and adaptation.   

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Humans excel, and fulfill our nature, by being morally good.

Humans can do other things,

and we are able to choose other ways of being.

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Humans can fight, wage war,

act with greed, hatred, and self-interest,

but we do not flourish or find happiness in these actions

either individually or collectively.

History demonstrates this fact.
 

There have been brief periods in human history,

where small groups of people have prospered,

often at the expense of other groups.

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However, these small groups have not flourished. 

There has never been a period of flourishing for all of humanity.

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No matter how any small groups prospered,

it has always been tenuous. 

Individuals within those small groups

always lived with the fear of others,

of losing their prosperity and position.

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Even those individuals who are prospering within these groups during the brief periods,

live with a fear of losing their place,

or live with the knowledge of the suffering of those around them,

which takes away from their individual flourishing.   

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Individual happiness and survival of the human species

depend on moral behavior.

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The Possibility

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It is human biological, rational and social nature to strive to be happy.

As animals, humans are driven to use their abilities to sustain themselves.

As rational thinkers, we are constantly looking for ways to live better lives.

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As social-emotional beings, we have developed all forms of

religious, governmental, economic, and cultural groupings

to try to find collective happiness.

 

Ethics, or good morality, is what will allow humans,

individually and collectively,

to fulfill our nature, to be happy and flourish.

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Imagine a world full of Excellent Human Beings.

people who try, on every decision-making occasion,

to make the right, good moral choice, in action and deed.

 

What might the world be like if our government, religious and civic leaders

were moral superstars, the best among all of us

at making the right moral choices.  

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Good morality applies to our animal, rational and social-emotional nature.

It is the one thing which can bring the various parts of the human being,

and all of the many different groupings of human beings together to flourish.

 

It is simple, but not easy. 

 

Human flourishing is built on individual excellence

and the notions surrounding the facts that

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‘I AM’

and

YOU ARE!

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Please join me as we continue to explore how you can achieve Human Excellence.  

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