Ethical Aphorism

One doesn’t become good by not doing evil, one becomes good by doing good.

So say the wise: in the past, now, and forever.

We ought to aim for the bulls eye rather than merely attempting to not hit the wall behind it.  (This is not to say that we should pretend there is no difference between hitting the wall and the target, as this can also lead to problems.  But that’s another issue.)  Once we adopt the mediocrity of mere avoidance as a strategy, we will be less likely to hit the target and more likely to simply say to hell with the whole thing for multiple reasons.  The point is that we hit the target by aiming for the bulls eye.  The likelihood of hitting the bulls eye itself is not particularly great, but it is practically impossible unless you aim for it.  More to the point, by repeatedly aiming for the bulls eye you will, in all likelihood and for the most part, hit the target rather than the wall with enough practice.

Christian moral teachings in the Western world have been mixed with an unfortunate strain in them for a longish while that ignores this truth.  The sometimes blurred focus this strain causes is likely not merely a doctrinal problem, but rather a temptation that is always present whenever moral teachings are taught or laws are promulgated. Regardless, I would argue that the best sorts of people living in the best sorts of times and places could agree that this simple aphorism is simply true, regardless of one’s understanding of religion.

It speaks to the importance of having examples we are striving to emulate, and an understanding of what virtue is.  We have to know what we are aiming for as well as what we wish to avoid.  Obvious?  Yes.  Aphorisms usually are, aren’t they?

If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of this), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that our desire would be empty and vain), clearly this must be the good and the chief good. Will not the knowledge of it, then, have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?