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Even this, however, isn't so simple. As Paul J. Wadell tells us, "there is nothing simple about doing what the good requires."
I just concluded that I would fail to respect Shelly's dignity if I were to remark on her malapropism in a social setting. But notice what I'm assuming about my friends in assuming that this outcome is likely or even just possible. I assume that Shelly is so petty and her dignity so fragile that simply being corrected by a friend and among friends could embarrass her and damage her dignity. Of our mutual friends, I assume they are so fickle in their estimations of their own friends that such a small thing as confusing two words could make a lasting and negative impression.
Shouldn't I think better of my friends? Does it damage their dignity even to assume such terrible things of them? Consider an extreme case: wouldn't I be doing violence to Shelly's dignity if I assumed she's capable of gruesome atrocities or the most heinous of crimes? My intuition is that it would. Shouldn't it be the same case, then, with this minor assumption?
I must admit here that I don't know the answer, even though I think this problem arises quite often -- whenever I face practical decisions that crucially involve predicting others' actions. On the one hand, I shouldn't predict that someone else will act in a way that would...
But this puzzle is just my point: morality is a journey, not a destination. As Wadell says, we should envision moral life as an ongoing quest for happiness.
There are definite moral answers in some cases, but not all of them; and, we don't always know which cases are which. The moral life is a life dedicated and rededicated to morality; but morality is so difficult! And thus, the moral life is partly a commitment to moral education, one's own and that of others. And notice, conveniently, what it means to take a person's moral education seriously. it's to assume the very best of that person: that she is capable of growing intellectually and morally, of respecting her own dignity and that of her teachers. It may be one perfectly moral activity…maybe.
REFERENCES
The U.S. Catholic Bishops. "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions."
Wadell, P.J. (1991). Happiness and the christian moral life. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
All page numbers in parentheses are to "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions."
Wadell 1991: 165
Ibid: 166
REFERENCES
The U.S. Catholic Bishops. "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions."
Wadell, P.J. (1991). Happiness and the christian moral life. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
All page numbers in parentheses are to "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions."
Wadell 1991: 165
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