The Moral Vision: How Do We Define It

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The Moral Vision: How Do We Define It? Moral vision. It’s a topic that we have been discussing throughout the semester; trying to answer the questions of how does one define, where does it come from, and how does one find it. Through the books we have read and the discussions we have had in class, there are many ways people define moral vision. Iris Murdoch believes that having moral vision entails a dedication to the act of paying attention. Murdoch also believes that a certain amount of prayer can help people in their search for clarity. Likewise, Gandhi believed that letting go of the material objects and paying attention to the small things, like helping others, would allow people to find their moral center. Gandhi also dedicated much of his life to following the teachings of The Gita, integrating them into every aspect of her life. While their ideas of moral vision seem to coincide, they are also very different in the way they are interrupted. Iris Murdoch spends much of her book explaining that paying attention and living a moral life were connected. She used the teachings of Plato and Kant to support her theories: “It is to them, to Plato first and foremost, that Murdoch turns untiring attention and wonder, where ‘attention’ and ‘wonder’ are themselves but, and very precisely, instruments of moral perception” (Murdoch xi). Murdoch also speaks about the act of being selfish and the fact that human beings are naturally selfish: “I assume that human beings are naturally selfish and that human life has no external point” (Murdoch 364). She goes on to say that: “Our states of consciousness differ in quality, our fantasies and reveries are not trivial and unimportant, they are profoundly connected with our energies and our ability to choose and act. And if quality of consciousness matters, then anything which alters consciousness in the direction
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