Creating a System of Jedi Ethics

[cheshire]

[Bren]

I'm unconvinced that Jedi ethics should be based solely on any particular earth region.

The robes and temple set up seems a bit like historical Japanese Zen Buddhist Warrior monks or what we see of Shaolin Monks on the Kung Fu TV shows, which I strongly suspect is < 100% accurate. I think the Master Kan's advice to "Avoid rather than check. Check rather than hurt. Hurt rather than maim. Maim rather than kill. For all life is precious and cannot be replaced." works very well for a Jedi precept.

I can see a touch of Panthesism (either Shinto or Western style) in the notion that the Force is in everything. But rocks and trees don't seem like they have spirits separate from the unifying Force itself.

On the other hand, the good / evil Light Side / Dark Side dichotomy seems very un-Eastern. To me that seems more like Persian Manicheistic thought in a way that seems more like Zoroastrianism than either Asian or European religious and philisophical thought.

To me, Judaism/Christianity/Islam don't fit well with how the Jedi are presented. They meditate rather than pray, they serve, but don't really worship the Force, and they see the Force as an impersonal non-anthropomorphic aspect of nature rather than the anthropomorphic version of god that is presented in much if not most of Abrahamic relitious teaching. Though I will admit that Obi-Wan's "From A Certain Point Of View" comment reminds me of a Jesuitical explanation/rationalization.

To me it seems a mish-mash of earth philosophies. Maybe not surprising since it was created by a California film-maker not a philosophy and religion student.

But I find it useful to have some way to think about how the Jedi see right and wrong.

[vanir]

I'm your inverse cheshire, far more versed in eastern philosophy than western (no college, was into traditional kobudo for a very long time which is infused with it)

So I, for one would be tremendously interesting in your spin on a Jedi-like perspective we can use in the game, especially if it is in some ways enlightening for players.

Sounds interesting already.

[Fallon Kell]

[vanir]

Might be worth mentioning western/eastern mediaeval period philosophies have a common source in greek thought.

gogyo setsu and gotonpo (the essence of eastern mythology from tibet to japan), is directly evolved from greek consensus transmitted via the old silk road.

[cheshire]

[Azai]

It's funny my fiancee and I were just talking about the ethical justification for the Clones, and how it seems very un-jedi like to command them.

I find it interesting that the Clone Wars flirts with this thought quite a bit, and does show the clones questioning it too.

Though when talking about a Utilitarian and Kantian out-look for a Jedi(Perhaps even a camp for the Golden-rule), I think one can make a valid argument for both of these type of Jedi to exist in a completely "light side" way of life. Preventing the out look that a utilitarian Jedi could be flirting with the darkness.

The argument being is if that situation they are facing is a moral dilemma, or a moral temptation. And if the situation is a moral dilemma as a right vs right argument then any way couldn't exists as a dark side path.

[Bren]

[vanir]

hehe, you brought up interesting points indeed cheshire.

perhaps it is that by determined anthropormoprhism and observation of cause and effect that ad hoc adaptability vital to concise solutions and recognition of retrograde accomplishment distinguish a not altogether uncommon tendency for more traditional, old world eastern culturalists to refer to patriotic westerners as utterly childish in thought, word and deed, in everything they are and have been, without recourse as being this is represented by the very root cause of their views.

...



oh yeah, pilsner bier

[cheshire]

[Bren]

[cheshire]

[Azai]

Though isn't the force life and death? At least that is what I got from the movies, especially being able to become "one with the force" and linger like Obi-won did.

So couldn't the force be death and life all in one? So using it to cause harm or death would just be as natural as using it to help and create life. Also if the force is everything that surrounds us, binds us, is it the darkside that causes earth quakes, tsunamis? Solar flares? Supernovas?

This could be considered the force turning on itself, but they are all natural occurrences.

Just something I have to say about wizards thought about the dark and light.

[vanir]

Azai the spanner in the works is complex evolutionary diversity, at least in terms of the typically oriental concept of maát or karma, in which monotheistic kabbala and to a lesser extent judaism observes.

In sectarian terms an extrapolate is the term "evil" which is not a word, but a term derived from the old english "unlife" or rather simplistically the word "live" spelled backwards. The latin version means malicious intent.

Religious fundamentalism is insanely simplistic by definition.

The fundamentalist contention of disembodied evil is based on the philosophical view that a poisonous condition harms life and thus is inherently diametrically opposed to complex evolutionary diversity. In order for the ebola virus to proliferate as a lifeform for example it must annihilate primate species as host, including up to 80% of the world human population, effectively defining a primordeal kind of evil at least in a relative sense.

It is along these kind of lines, philosophical corruption of productive (and the achievement and proliferation of sentient) life which may define ideas upon whether the Force can be used in any way diametrically opposed to complex evolutionary diversity as opposed to special conditions of survival.

In simplest Jedi terms: influence, don't manipulate.

[Whill]

Cheshire, Bren, I love your insights.