09 Jun Question HUM105 Great Ideas of World Civilizations
Question
HUM105 Great Ideas of World Civilizations
Discussion Forum 8
If we don’t know what is true, how do we know what is right?
This week, we’re going to talk about the ancient play by the Athenian playwright Sophocles, Oedipus the King. To prepare for this discussion, you’ll need to do the following:
Read the Britannica article on the myth of Oedipus (It’s in the Materials for the Four Units area, in Unit 3’s folder). You need to know the story before you read the play.
Read the play. You can buy a copy, or find it on line, but I recommend the translation that I listed in the texts for this class. It’s easier if everyone is using the same translation, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
It’s a very good idea if you watch the play as well. I’ve linked us to two different filmed productions – the BBC production with Michael Pennington and the American film production with Christopher Plummer. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Pick one of them and watch all the way through. It will be worth it, to help you understand the play’s impact better than just reading it.
After you’ve read/watched the play, participate in this discussion forum. As before, your first response should be your own answer to the question below. Make your answer about 100 to 150 words, and use at least one quotation from the play. This first post is due by 11:59 pm Thursday, April 4th.
Finally, respond to a classmate’s post. Make this post at least 2 to 3 sentences long, and post by Sunday, April 7th, 11:59 pm.
Here is the question:
In the story and in the play, Oedipus makes choices that appear to be both moral and wise. He wants to be a good king, a good son, a good husband, and a good father, and he tries always to do the right thing. He is admired by his people for his wisdom (as the solver the the Riddle of the Sphinx), his justice, and his compassion as a ruler and he is confident of his own abilities and the rightness of his intentions. But when the truth is revealed – by Oedipus himself – it is revealed that all of his choices were not only mistaken, they were horribly morally wrong. In your view, what has Oedipus’s story to say to us about our own moral choices? Is it possible to make morally right choices when we can never know for sure how those choices will work out? If not, is there any such thing as right and wrong?
To answer this question, consider the following:
There are two destructive and extreme ideas in the history of human thought. One is absolutism – the belief that I (or my community or religious group) have the only possible single truth, and that all others are wrong. As we have seen throughout history, absolutism leads to all sorts of horrors: persecutions, inquisitions, intolerance, and wars.
But the other extreme, called “relativism”, has also been equally destructive. Relativism says that, since we can’t know truth, there is no such thing as truth. Anything goes. All beliefs are equally true. All feelings are equally right. All actions are equally moral. Anything that a person chooses to believe is to be accepted.
But that leads to a serious problem. If I toss a piece of wood I picked up onto a platform and call it a work of art, should it be accepted that it is great art, just because I think so? Is it okay for me to say that my people are superior to all others, or that the Sun circles around the Earth, in spite of all of the evidence, because that’s “my truth”? Are you prepared to say that the person who believes that human sacrifice is necessary to please his gods should be allowed to practice his beliefs freely? Is anything and everything true, because I want it to be? Relativism makes law, morality, and excellence impossible, because it allows for no stable standard outside of our individual prejudices and preferences. Even though it’s supposed to allow complete individual freedom, relativism inevitably results in the opposite of freedom: the strongest, loudest voice dominates, without needing to have any concern for the merit of what it is saying.
Okay, so let us say for the sake of this discussion that we reject both of those extremes. But how then do we avoid the error that destroyed Oedipus, without becoming relativists?
As before, make sure you do at least one of the following for each of your two posts:
Be the first to post an answer to the question. (You get extra credit if you do!)
Agree, but then add to what someone else has already said.
Disagree with something already said, but explain why you disagree.
Add a new element or new idea to the discussion.
Again, do not just agree, disagree, go off on an unrelated tangent, or base your argument on “It’s just my opinion”. Give reasons. Be clear, reasonable, and respectful
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