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My Personal Compass advocates a return to common sense morality in a world increasingly defined by narrow views of morality as merely consent and consequences. This work delves into the potential for finding common grounds and fostering meaningful discussions on moral issues.
Complex topics are often reserved for lengthy lectures and dense volumes, primarily accessible to those with high levels of motivation. Yet, these detailed discourses typically boil down to a handful of key ideas. "My Personal Compass" distills these into 99 succinct ideas, each addressing one of nine fundamental moral questions.
Understanding differs from knowledge. Knowledge is the accumulation of information, and, in today's world, we have an abundance of it. Understanding, however, is about grasping the meaning and relevance of this knowledge. "My Personal Compass" doesn't aim at imparting knowledge but to elicit understanding.
We reach understanding not merely through accumulating ideas but through clarifying, explicating, and exploring the implications and complexities of these ideas. In "My Personal Compass," we strive to demonstrate how these ideas interconnect, forming a coherent picture of morality. This process is akin to how pixels or puzzle pieces come together to form a complete image, or how various melodies from different instruments blend to create a symphony.
2. Morality does not depend on what you do but on what you want to do.
3. We want both our intentions and the means to our intentions.
4. The end does not justify the means.
5. Some voluntary side-effects might be unwanted.
7. We should never want to do wrong.
8. Only humans can want what they dislike.
9. My willing reveals me as a person.
10. It is better to suffer injustice than to commit injustice.
11. Free will is not indetermination but self-determination.
13. We are responsible for what we will: actions, omissions and neglect.
14. Responsibility is made up of knowledge and will.
15. The situation may excuse the agent, but not the action.
16. Judging behavior is not judging people.
17. Adults are responsible for the rules they choose to rule their lives.
18. We should never disobey our conscience.
19. True conscience is not one’s opinions on moral matters, but the pursuit of moral truth.
20. Honest errors can be excused.
21. There is only one person we must judge: ourselves.
22. Our greatest responsibility is the formation of conscience.
23. Good is what helps something to be what it is.
24. Badness is the lack of goodness.
25. Good and bad does not depend on what we want but on what we are.
26. The greatest goodness of persons is the goodness of their wills.
27. All moral matters are practical matters.
29. Moral principles are discoveries on how to pursue the moral good of the person.
30. Moral principles are based on what we are; not on what we decide.
31. Positive principles oblige prudentially; negative principles can oblige absolutely.
32. A wrong objective of the moral act makes the whole act wrong (MPC # 4).
33. There are some, narrowly defined, absolute moral principles.
34. Only moral absolutes guarantee absolute rights.
35. Some but few immoralities need to be illegal.
36. We must choose happiness; we have no choice.
37. Happiness is a change in us, not a change in the world.
38. True freedom needs to be conquered.
39. We are not happier when we have more choices but when we choose well.
40. Choosing well means making choices that turn us into better persons.
41. My worst enemy is my many mes.
42. The rules define the game, but the skills define the player, even in morality.
43. Virtues are voluntarily created, intentionally acquired and intelligently practiced moral skills.
44. There are four cardinal moral dispositions but innumerable moral virtues.
45. Not the greatest happiness for the greatest number but the greatest number of the greatest persons.
46. Morality is not a restriction but an increase of freedom to live well.
47. We are not free from human nature but for human nature.
48. If there is no human nature everything is permitted.
49. The concept of morality has been corrupted.
50. Moralistic legalism engenders hypocrisy.
51. Know thyself and thy many thees.
52. Sins are not desirig sinful things too much but desiring good things wrongly.
53. Sins are not bad for what they pursue but for good they fail to pursue.
54. Thine ego is thy worst enemy.
56. Prudence is the most necessary of the moral virtues.
58. Imprudence is the lack of due process.
59. Ethics = Morals.
60. Fairness is not a feeling but a will.
61. Justice can't be blind, it needs to see the dignity of the person.
62. Being fair to others is good for you.
63. Society cannot stand without virtues.
64. We need others to be virtuous.
65. The heart begins in love and rests in joy.
66. Follow your heart, only if your heart is right.
67. We have power over our heart.
69. Enduring power is greater than overpowering power.
70. Magnanimity makes us greater.
71. The body learns deeper than it unlearns.
72. Temperance tempers all emotions.
73. Shame feels bad but can do good.
74. Emotional health needs right rewards.
75. Love is a virtue; the most important.
76. Faith and hope are spiritual needs.
77. Humans are unfinished.
78. There is no single evidence of God's existence because everything gives evidence of God's existence.
79. God is constantly and unceasingly creating goodness and is the origin of its bad side-effects.
80. We need love but are handicapped for love, so we need salvation.
81. God is an unchangeable act of love.
82. God’s creative love creates creation and grace.
83. God's grace can recreate us into new creatures.
84. Conversion is a change of mind that leads to a change of heart and a change of life.
85. Human morality depends on human nature. Christian morality depends on God's nature.
86. Christian morality is the consequence of God’s love for us; not God's condition for God’s love.
88. We need dogmas to avoid dogmatism.
89. Christian faith seeks baptism to be fully alive.
90. Christian faith generates Christian hope for a new world.
91. We don't pray to change God's mind; we pray for God to change our hearts.
92. Christians hope for final judgment.
93. Christians can hope for mercy beyond the tomb.
94. Christian love is not an excuse for self-deprecation but an empowerment for self-giving.
95. Christian faith implies an empowerment to love as God can love.
96. Christian love infuses every aspect of the Christian's life.
97. We need more than theological virtues; we need gifts.
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