Best of Podcasts - Core values
Every person is important and unique.
— Core value
“Every person is important and unique.” So says the very first of the core values of our Sunday Ethical Education for Kids Program. It’s pretty clear why we should treat every person as important, but why does being unique matter? What is so special about our uniqueness? Outreach Director James Croft will explore the many forms of human uniqueness, showing why it matters and how we can recognize the uniqueness of others in our lives.
I am free to question.
— Core value
That is the question! Questioning is a crucial freedom and an important source of information and wisdom. But can questioning be taken too far? And what does the Ethical Society slogan “Deed before creed” really mean?
I accept responsibility for my choices and actions.
— Core value
This month’s theme is about responsibility, a crucial aspect of ethics. This two-part platform address will encourage us to take more personal responsibility for our choices and our lives and not to see ourselves as victims, but it will also explore how “responsibility” can become a code-word for blaming actual victims and avoiding assigning true responsibility.
You can find the second part of this address here Victims and Victimhood, Part II.
I accept responsibility for my choices and actions.
— Core value
This month’s theme is about responsibility, a crucial aspect of ethics. The second of this two-part platform address will encourage us to take more personal responsibility for our choices and our lives and not to see ourselves as victims, but it will also explore how “responsibility” can become a code-word for blaming actual victims and avoiding assigning true responsibility.
If you missed the start of this series check it our first Victims and Victimhood, Part I.
I am a member of the world community, which depends on the cooperation of all people for peace and justice.
— Core value
The idea of a human community seems a simple one: we’re all human, after all, so don’t we all have common concerns? Yet recent decades have seen increasing emphasis on the uniqueness of individuals and the differences between groups of people. At a time of political polarization and increasing attention to the concerns of particular groups, can we find ways to assert that we are part of a human community, focusing on what we share while respecting the important differences between us?
Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly.
— Core value
We often think of “fairness” in terms of equality: if we treat people equally, then we are being fair. But this is not always the case. Some people, because they suffer from systemic disadvantages, need more than equal treatment in order to have a fair chance in society. This is the basis of affirmative action, which seeks to make up for a group’s disadvantages by going beyond equal treatment. Sometimes, equality is not enough.
I learn from the world around me by using my senses, mind, and feelings.
— Core value
“Naturalism” refers to a general worldview that reality in any useful sense is encompassed by what we can experience with our five senses and understand with relatively objective tools. This talk explains why and how Ethical Humanism uses naturalism as our common ground for ethical discussions, and what this means for how we relate to non-naturalistic arguments.
I can learn from everyone.
— Core value
In an increasingly polarized political environment, how can we learn from people we strongly disagree with? This Platform will explore the ethical importance of learning from those we disagree with, and offer some guidance as to how to do it.
I am part of this earth, I cherish it and all the life upon it.
— Core value
In a time when humanity is facing its largest environmental crisis since the Ice Age, what attitudes and behaviors are truly “extreme”?
I can learn from the past to build for the future.
— Core value
Authors, artists, and filmmakers throughout history have tried to imagine the future, and the different visions they have created reveal something about our hopes and fears for humankind. What can we learn from visionary depictions of the human future, from the utopian to the dystopian, and how do you imagine our future?
I strive to live my values.
— Core value
Our Core Value is to “strive” to live our values; we recognize that we will not always succeed in acting in accordance with our highest values. And of course, sometimes we are wrong about what is the right thing to do. But how do we react when others fail to live up to our values or expectations? Especially in this political season, what can we reasonably expect of our political leaders or would-be leaders? How can we judge them fairly?
I am free to choose what I believe.
— Core value
We may be free to choose what we believe, but how do we exercise our choice responsibly, with appropriate attention to evidence, reasons, and the views of others? This Platform suggests that while freedom of choice in belief is important, it must be balanced. We may be free to choose what we believe, but how do we exercise our choice responsibly, with appropriate attention to evidence, responsibility to provide public reasons for those of our beliefs which affect others.
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