Michael Shermer, "The Moral Arc 도덕의 궤적"에서

Michael Shermer, "The Moral Arc" (2015)

 

주말에, 이번 주엔 어떤 책들이 한국 신문에는 올라있나, 문득 궁금해져서

인터넷에 들어가 보니 우선 마이클 셔머의 (비소설) "도덕의 궤적"이 눈에

띄었다. Michael Shermer, "The Moral Arc" (2015)의 번역본이다. 마침

이웃 동네 도서관에 있기에 빌려다 대강 훑어봤다. 본문 439쪽, '노트'와

색인까지 포함해서 541쪽(번역본은 769쪽)인 이 책은 그걸로 충분하다는,

더 읽어볼 만하지는 않다는 생각이다.

(Kazuo Ishiguro 의 중편 소설 "A Pale View of Hills"에 나오는, 일제

시대 선생이었던 Ogata-San 과 그의 제자로, 일본 패전 몇 년 후, 지금은

선생인 Shiego Matsuda 의 대화가 생각난다. (Shiego:) "In your day,

children in japan were taught terrible things. They were taught

lies of the most damaging kind. Worst of all, they were taught

not to see, not to question." (Ogata-San:) "You have no idea,

Shiego, how hard we worked, men like myself, men like Dr.Endo,

whom you also insulted in your article. We cared deeply for the

country and worked hard to ensure the correct values were

preserved and handed on." (Shiego:) "I don't doubt you were

sincere and hard working. I have never questioned that for one

moment. But it just so happens that your energies were spent

in a misguided direction, an evil direction. You weren't to know

this, but I'm afraid it's true. It's all behind us now and we can

only be thankful." (Ogata-San:) "This is extraordinary, Shiego.

Can you really believe this? Who taught you to say such things?"

(Shiego:) "And to be fair, you shouldn't be blamed for not

realizing the true consequences of your actions. Very few men

could see where it was all leading at the time, and those men

were put in prison for saying what they thought. But they are

free now, and they'll lead us to a new dawn." (Ogata-San:)

"A new dawn? What nonsense is this?" Shiego 가 가고난 후

Ogata-San 이 며느리에게 말한다: "How confident young men are.

I suppose I was much the same once. Very sure of my opinions.")

It was just as Dr. King has said -- the arc of the moral universe

is long but it bends toward justice. (p.2)

One path(among many) to a more moral world is to get people

to quit believing in absurdities. Science and reason are the best

methods for doing that. (p.7)

The reasoning process behind the expanding moral sphere ...

might more broadly be called the principle of  interchangeable

perspectives, and it applies not just to individuals within a group,

tribe, or nation, but between groups, tribes, and nations as well.

(p.19)

Thinking scientifically requires the ability to reason abstractly,

which itself is at the foundation of all morality. Consider the

mental rotation required to implement the golden Rule; Do unto

others as you would have them do unto you. (p.21)

The Scientific Revolution led directly to the Enlightenment, as

intellectuals in the eighteenth century sought to emulate the

great scientists of the previous centuries in applying the

rigorous methods of the natural sciences and philosophy to

explaining phenomena and solving problems. (p.117)

Even in the fundamental principles underlying the Declaration

of Independence ... were in fact grounded in the type of

scientific reasoning .... In his biography of Benjamin Franklin,

Walter Isaacson recounts the story of how the term

"self-evident" came to be added to Jefferson's original draft

by Franklin ....

The most important of his edits was small but resounding.

He crossed out ... the last three words of Jefferson's

phrase, "We hold these truths to be sacred and

undeniable" and changed them to the words now

enshrined in history: "We hold these truths to be

self-evident."

(p. 136)

The hypothesis that reason-based Enlightenment thinking

leads to moral progress is one that can be tested through

historical comparison and by examining what happens to

countries that hold anti-Enlightenment values. (p.137)

One of the aims of this book, in fact, is to argue that it is

reason and science more than any other force that have

helped to break through the artificial barriers to extending

our sympathies to all peoples. (p. 397)