- Does the cultivation of virtue suffice to achieve eudaimonia (human flourishing)?
- What other spiritual processes might be required?
Pagan ethics
- Pagan ethics allow personal freedom within a framework of personal responsibility. The primary basis for Pagan ethics is the understanding that everything is interconnected, that nothing exists without affecting others, and that every action has a consequence.
- There is no concept of forgiveness for sin in the Pagan ethical system; the consequences of one's actions must be faced and reparations made as necessary against anyone whom you have harmed.
- There are no arbitrary rules about moral issues; instead, every action must be weighed against the awareness of what harm it could cause. Thus, for example, consensual homosexuality would be a null issue morally because it harms no one, but cheating would be wrong because it harms one's self, one's intellect, one's integrity, and takes unfair advantage of the person from whom you are cheating.
- http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_essa.htm
Animist ethics
- “Animism is the attempt to live respectfully as members of the diverse community of living persons (only some of whom are human) which we call the world or cosmos.”
- “Particular groups of animists express and evolve their worldviews and lifeways in various ways. These have considerable relevance to important debates among academics in many disciplines and among many other groups of people.”
- Graham Harvey, http://www.animism.org.uk/
Ecological ethics
- “Eco-Pagans are those Contemporary Pagans who partly express their spirituality through environmental activism and rituals of resistance.”
- “In Eco-Pagan practice belief in the sacredness of nature becomes an embodiment of political commitment. As a result the sacred body is integrated in political strategies of resistance. Many Eco-Pagan beliefs are rooted in eco-philosophy, and elements of Deep Ecology and Eco-Feminism are especially evident. But Eco-Paganism is more than is an expression of a holistic belief system - it is a way of being-in-the-world. Eco-Pagan practice engenders subjective feelings of interconnectedness as well as inspiration to political activism. (Plows 1998b).”
http://www.thegreenfuse.org/harris.htm
Further reading
John Casey (1990), Pagan Virtue: An Essay in Ethics, Clarendon Press.
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