Socrates said it best,
"There is only one Good, Knowledge.
There is only one Evil, Ignorance."
Good and Evil, like all other words are human descriptions and depend on human definitions for their meaning. As everyone recognizes words only name things that are in the world or in human minds, they are not those things. For several thousands of years some persons have thought that good and evil each actually exist as a real "presence" in the world. However, there is no verifiable evidence that this is true.
For a science of ethics Good and Evil deal with descriptions of human behavior. They do not exist independently in the world nor are they valid adjectives describing a person. Bad and evil are taken to mean similar things that differ in magnitude. These terms need to be replaced by more exact adjectives which describe behavior in ways that lead to necessary and desirable changes.
Bad acts, bad people, laws of society, guilt, and punishment as defined by political bodies exist outside of the realm of cause and effect. Therefore, punishment (even capital punishment) is considered to be the perfect response to sufficiently bad behavior. Those who judge bad people do not need to prove the value, the psychological or moral justification, or effectiveness of punishment. They only are required to prove guilt.
Once society accepted the idea that there are "bad" people it was caught in the dilemma of thinking they were "bad" because either they chose to be, or because they were innately bad/evil. Therefore, ideas on free will/ determinism relate directly to "bad" people; i.e., individuals who do cruel, illegal, or thoughtless things. It is a core assumption of a science of ethics that it is counterproductive to say that anyone is inherently evil or beyond human help. Persons may be confused, misled, ignorant, perhaps even physiologically malformed; but, they cannot just be inherently bad. This would make badness an effect without a cause. A science of ethics doesn't support belief in effects without causes. An enlightened community cannot ignore cause and effect, scientific evidence, study, analysis. If an individual does cruel, illegal, immoral, or stupid things my core assumption is that ignorance is to blame. Therefore, in a science of ethics laws and morality must be defined so as to depend on cause and effect and as a result be open to scientific study.
Those who argue that punishment (including capital punishment) is a necessary social tool to achieve good behavior, realize that a person can many times be intimidated into refraining from certain acts or into performing certain acts; when they have not yet internalized the values of their society. However, what is usually overlooked is that such a person is a constant threat to themselves and society. They may at any time get into a situation that will push them over the line with the result that they perform self-destructive, antisocial acts. Therefore, this method is at best stop-gap because one can never be sure how long or the limits under which it will be successful. Worse yet, this approach develops individuals unable to achieve their full positive potential. See, FOR YOUR OWN GOOD: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence, Alice Miller, translated by Hildegarde and Hunter Hannum, Farrar-Straus-Giroux, New York, 1983.
However, all the foregoing is very easy for most persons to ignore because our society has already accepted as true that there is an inherent conflict between the individual and their society. This assumption is rejected by a science of ethics.
Societies that regard punishment as necessary because without it the bad acts of citizens would destroy the society, have been ruled by a principle I call the "Doctrine of Fear." This doctrine comes out of our genetic heritage of dominance and submission. It involves ridiculing, banishing, excommunicating, whipping, beating, jailing, torturing, killing, etc. members who do not do what the society says they should. Obedience and submission to the rules and those who command is the aim. Many proclaim that without punishment a society would experience chaos, and a society that is not yet an enlightened community might. However, the doctrine of fear must be discarded as a necessary, or even desirable way to organize an enlightened community. An enlightened person cannot be ruled by fear, but must be inspired by love, understanding, honesty, and commitment based on acceptance of the goals and institutions of the society because its goals and institutions have as their primary aim to help each person achieve a sustainable feeling that their lfe has meaning.
It may seem much easier to "put the fear of God" into individuals rather than helping them become wise persons. But this takes us directly to the core issue. What is a society for? In the framework of a science of ethics, a society's transcendent justification for existing is to work in every way it can for the well-being of every one of its citizens; i.e., to help them achieve their "wisdom" potential. Authority, fear, and control can never be used as methods of choice to help individuals become their best self.
However, without a science of ethics no society can recognize this responsibility let alone achieve it. Until the institutions supporting a science of ethics are established, the research done, and experience developed, many will continue to support rule through fear because of their ignorance. Most leaders are functioning out of their alpha male propensity. Therefore, they are more interested in obedience than producing enlightened persons. However, even if one ignores the importance of an individual life, it should be obvious that fear and punishment fail far too often to be endorsed as practical methods for organizing society. One has but to study the lives of those called "bad" to see where the doctrine of fear errs. It rests on the assumption that punishment will change behavior in the desired way.
In truth, however, there is the possibility that for many persons, "Whether in its first or final stage, [crime] is essentially a self-destructive, probably masochistic need and is therefore more often satisfied than eliminated or even temporarily held in check by punishment. For that reason the use of punishment as a correctional device is self-defeating." (Foregoing quote from: CELL 2455, DEATH ROW, Caryl Chessman, p. 353, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1954.) Equally important as Alice Miller points out (in her book mentioned above), physical punishment produces grave psychological scars that interfere with the healthy functioning of the individual. By destructive acts individuals show that they must have help to overcome their difficulty.
Everything about Law must be refocused in an enlightened community. In theory a good law states a principle or method of action that a good person would follow if no law existed. Therefore, when a person breaks a law they are a priori considered to be a bad person. But in an enlightened community there are no bad persons. There is only bad behavior. Bad behavior is a consequence of ignorance, not some innate essence called "badness." Because of the aforementioned, law has been almost totally misused. It can even lead to persecution of the innocent and rewarding the guilty. Laws in a society that is not yet an enlightened community are almost universally used as tools by which the rich and powerful exploit the weak and powerless. Also laws act as excuses to perpetrate cruel and heartless behavior on each other.
In a truly civilized society (an enlightened community) it is always to a person's advantage to do right because that is what right is. It is impossible for "bad" persons to truly advance themselves and achieve what they need. They commonly believe -- because society reinforces their "tribal" propensity to achieve dominance -- that wealth, power, prestige, etc. will bring what they seek. However, even the most cursory thought will make clear that illegal actions will not fill one's needs, except in a very short term, superficial way. Wealth, power, prestige, etc. are only means not ends. They may bring satisfaction because they can be used to do things that will give it; e.g., build nurturing bonds with loving friends. But in themselves they are as worthless as addictive, pleasure giving drugs.
Laws used to justify punishment are considered to be essential in primitive civilized societies (societies such as the U.S., Europe, Japan, etc.). Because these societies don't have a clue as to what is really going on they have followed archaic ideas about the effectiveness of punishment. Therefore, their only socially approved method of dealing with aberrant behavior is to punish, or warehouse those who do not, will not, or cannot follow the rules. In a truly civilized society (a wise community) laws would be guides for social behavior. Violators and transgressors would not be punished. Rather, helping hands would be available to aid them in making appropriate changes. This process would provide the necessary tools to help citizens behave more responsibly, and in a more satisfying way. In an enlightened community justice will be ensured and tyranny prevented by a technique that is more trustworthy and humane while at the same time less wasteful and destructive than prisons/ jails, punishment. It will be possible to protect all the members of the community by a better method than punishment. The foregoing will be true because procedures will exist to help each person move toward becoming an enlightened person.
The concept of law as traditionally used focuses on three primary points: 1) that the person was capable of intent, 2) that they did in fact perform an illegal act, and 3) prescribed punishment will be meted out. The foregoing demonstrates the primary deficiency of this approach. It is concerned with guilt, blame, and punishment. There is limited interest in understanding the cause and effect involved, particularly society's role in the event. Therefore, law as now utilized gives us very little hope for future improvement. It is here proposed that being guilty and having intent are only part of the picture. Knowledge and ignorance are also of prime importance. They provide a way to consider society's share of the responsibility for the behavior under discussion. This would open channels to make whatever changes are necessary in society to prevent asocial and antisocial acts by this individual and by similar individuals. In most cases the need is not to guard society from individuals but rather to guard both society and individuals from their own ignorance in order to avoid hurtful acts.
Murdering, stealing, lying, hating, dissipating, using addictive drugs, etc. are symptoms. These are things that exist because of conditions which should not exist. We must work at all times in the most strenuous manner to eliminate these conditions from the face of the earth. Saying that murder is immoral, or a crime is not very useful. Murder must not be performed for reasons far more fundamental than being immoral, or a crime. It interferes with becoming an enlightened community, and achieving a sustainable feeling that one's life has meaning; i.e., living one's life rather than just going through the motions.
10. What does a science of ethics say about faith/belief?
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Currently, nearly all treatment programs of U.S. society -- whether using jails/prisons, fines, drugs, psychological counseling, devine intervention, etc. -- depend on humanity's "tribal" propensities. As a result they have serious limitations in modern society. Based on my analysis of these procedures, I conclude that we need to move toward developing and utilizing procedures that depend on our "wisdom" potential.
It is critical that those who recognize the value of a science of ethics and want to promote it, work to develop alternative approaches that provide the right ingredients. Social programs that are consistent with wisdom do exist, even at this time. Two of them are discussed below. These are the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program of Santa Clara County, California; and S.M.A.R.T. Recovery from Substance Abuse.
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It seems to me that the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (CSATP) model could serve as a guide for how to treat all, or nearly all, criminal justice cases. Persons, committing criminal acts would be recognized as lacking some essential social experiences which must be provided and developed in order to help the person move in the direction of their own best interests. Thereauputic communities would need to be established to provide this treatment.
The Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program of Santa Clara County was developed by Dr. Henry Giarretto in the early 1970s to treat incest. Incest was almost totally ignored until Dr. Giarretto became involved in efforts to treat it. Because of his efforts a great deal of attention has been focused on this area. This attention has led to the development of several new social programs as society has struggled to deal with this new awareness. His efforts began in 1971 when 26 incest cases were referred to him. In the treatment of these individuals based on humanistic psychology he developed a program that is internationally recognized. It is the most widely followed model in the world. The CSATP of Santa Clara County regularly conducts training sessions which have resulted in the establishment of over 150 community based CSATP-type centers in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia. Click here for reference sources. By 1989 it had provided services to over 20,000 clients. It is now recognized that at least ten percent of females and a significant number of males have been sexually abused by a parent, family member, or close relative.
In almost all cases these experiences are extremely damaging to the victim, the offender, and the entire family, both during the sexual phase and after it ends. The child suffers emotional trauma which often leads to self-abusive behavior that may last a lifetime. When the victim is a girl the father's life goes into sharp decline; and the marriage, weak to begin with, becomes intolerable and often ends in divorce or dissolution. If the situation is reported to the authorities of a typical American community, their reactions aggravate the family's troubled state even more. The victim's accusations are often ignored by law enforcement officials if the evidence is weak and the parents deny the charges, thus leaving the child feeling betrayed both by her parents and by the commmunity. On the other hand, the officials become harshly punitive if they have a court-provable case. They separate the child from her mother and family and incarcerate the father, often for several years. This way of coping with father-daughter incest prevails in most communities in the United States and was the way officials reacted in Santa Clara County, California before the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program was started and proven effective.
The CSATP has three components: 1) A professional component that includes all the officially responsible members of the community: police, social workers, mental health workers, probation officers, defense and prosecuting attorneys, judges, and rehabilitation officers. 2) A Volunteer component: administrative interns, usually undergraduate students; graduate students working towards licenses in marriage, family, and child counseling; and, 3) The Self-Help Component: Parents United (parents involved in treatment) and its adjunct, Daughters and Sons United (the victims of parental abuse).
The foregoing provides a therapeutic community in which guilty individuals can come to understand the consequences of their behavior on their daughter, themselves, and their family in general. Its model is that persons who form abusive relationships with their mates, children, and other important people in their lives do so because they are incapable of developing trusting and mutually beneficial relations. Abusive parents typically were raised by punitive and generally uncaring parents. They are incapable of leading self-fulfilling lives. They exist in a state of chronic resentment which can be discharged only through hostile acts unconsciously intended to be self-punishing.
When clients come into the program they frequently must be helped to understand the need to admit their guilt which allows them to begin the treatment they need to improve their mental health. The victim must have their fears dealt with by recognizing that there is a sympathetic and responsible team working for them. The mother needs help to deal with her distraught state and become convinced that she will receive the help she needs to work through the current crises and put the family back together again if this is what she wants. Mother-daughter counseling is the key first step towards re-establishing a sound mother-daughter relationship.
The CSATP is outstanding and exists because of its own merit. However, I see it as a first step in the development of a model for the way our whole criminal justice system should function. It seems to me that criminal behavior exists because of archaic models about the purpose of human life. The success of the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program demonstrates the truth of the foregoing statement. However, it is clear why we are unable to see the obvious failure of our current models. Every day we are brainwashed by the news media, "experts," religious leaders, and politicians to believe that there truly are bad/evil people in the world. And really the only thing we can do with them is to kill them. It's actually even best for them. They can't change and life in prison is hell.
We know they can't change because we've given them many opportunities, and still they fail. After all -- over and over -- we have isolated them in jails and prisons, even solitary confinement. We have beaten them (in the hidden places every jail and prison reserves for such things). We have demeaned them in every way our system is aware of. We have denied them jobs, any opportunity of any kind, education -- even learning how to read in many cases. We have given them the chance to learn to be obedient by permitting their parents to beat them, lock them in closests, deny them food, strike, burn, whip. As they -- against all odds -- survived to grow older we expanded our efforts to teach them to be obedient. We turned them over to police, jail and prison guards, and all the other bullies such cesspools create, and still they remain law breakers. Can you believe! We taught them and taught them and they just haven't gotten the message. They truly are beyond hope. If we can't kill them, then there is no other way but to put them away for the rest of their life (at a greater annual cost than sending someone's child to Harvard). After all it's only 50 to 100 years. Small cost to have order in society and to sleep at night knowing all the law breakers are safely tucked away!
But wait! Wasn't there a crime reported just in yesterday's news? Didn't a recent survey show that fear of crime is one of the top items of worry? Aren't there areas of every modern U.S. city where even the police don't go alone at night? Is it possible that the decision makers and voters are stupid? Could it be that all of our threats, cruelty, de-humanizing treatment have actually promoted crime and brutality rather than producing gentleness, love, kindness -- model citizens?
How come a program that has an almost 100% success rate (as the CSATP does) in dealing with the most depraved human beings -- those who sexually violate their own children -- that has existed for over 20 years is not held up as an example for what is possible whenever crime is mentioned, but rather is essentially ignored by all who should be touting it from the rooftops? There are many answers, but they all lead -- in my mind -- to the need for a science of ethics. I hope you agree.
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Alcoholism and drug abuse are seen as examples of behavior that can be changed as one gains control over the processes leading to this behavior. Part of this recognizes the fact that there are internal forces that lead one to engage in these behaviors, and that they are destructive to one's best interests.
This program grew out of one started by Jack Trimpey in 1988 with the first group in Sacramento, California and today has groups in some 500 cities in the U.S. It is growing dramatically and has been responsible for forcing courts and other government agencies to provide recognitition for other approaches than the "higher power" model of the 12-step programs.
10. What does a science of ethics say about faith/belief?
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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON CSATP
a) CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT, "A Comprenensive Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program," Henry Giarretto, Ph.D., Vol. 6, pp. 263-278, 1982
b) PSYCHIATRIC CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICA,"Community-Based Treatment of the Incest Family," Henry Giarretto, Ph.D., Vol. 12, No. 2, June 1989.
c) JOURNAL OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY, Humanistic Treatment of Father-Daughter Incest," Henry Giarretto, Ph.D., Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 1978.
d) INTEGRATED TREATMENT OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: A Treatment and Training Manual, Henry Giarretto, Science and Behavior Books, Palo Alto, CA., 1982. Provides information on the CSATP training program.
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