ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the benefit of the development of individual and community morality, if the recommendations in chapter three are followed. This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the dangers of dehumanizing people. The first three social philosophers are Transcendentalists from the mid-nineteenth century. Emerson believed that as people improved their morality, their government’s morality would be a reflection of the people who formed it. Thoreau’s insight was that a true friend would drive people to keep improving their lives, including their morality. Also, Thoreau thought that people have a responsibility to act on their conscience, regardless of the consequences. And Whitman believed that the moral purpose of life is to help another human soul.
One of Dewey’s insights was that discussion and deliberation within the community can not only help develop an individual’s capacities, it can also help bring the individual’s ethical standards and the community’s ethical standards into alignment. Mills wrote about how modern society caused the decline of both individual’s and society’s morality. And finally, the Port Huron Statement was an inspiration for multiple social movements in the 1960s that were seeking social justice.
