When faced with a seemingly unresolvable
ethical dilemma, I resort to The Golden Rule.
Most know the New Testament version:
"So in
everything, do to others what you would have them do to you".
(Matthew 7:12 and
Luke 6:31)
But there is
another version, as worded by Rabbi Hillel in the Talmud:
“What is hateful
to you, do not do to your fellow.”
As the Talmudic story goes, A
non-Jew approached Hillel, asking to be taught the entire Torah while standing
on one foot. Hillel responded with the Golden Rule, and added, “the rest is
commentary. Now go study.”
Between these two versions, I
prefer Hillel’s. There are many things I would like “done to me” that others wouldn’t
like done to them. People are different that way, and vive la différence.
I find I prefer the approach through negation. It comes closer to respecting others.
But even here, there are those
things you would hate that others don’t. In other words, the Golden Rule is
still golden, but the duty to use discernment is never discharged.
I was faced with such a dilemma only
the other day. The Golden Rule helped me take the harder route. Did I choose
right? I can’t make this claim. But I stand by the way I went about trying.
5 comments:
I agree with you totally about the discernment and about the fact that we need to acknowledge that others have different preferences than our own. But I still prefer the positively stated Golden Rule more than the negative. If we only refrain from doing hurtful things to others, we miss out on countless opportunities to be of help to them. It's like the difference between smiling at someone who really needs a smile and refraining from frowning at them.
I love the Golden Rule--it's such a great discernment tool. I, too, like the positive approach. Interesting that all the other religious texts have it as the negative. Yes, do no evil. But Christianity goes above and beyond the bare minimum. We are to love even our enemies. Ev expresses the distinction so well between the positive and negative approaches.
Another version of this could the advice given by the wise 200-year old man played by Sam Jaffe in the movie Lost Horizon, : "Be kind." If you are kind to others you're (probably) not doing something offensive* and you're thinking of their welfare.
*I hedged by saying probably because you might step on their cultural toes by mistake.
MirkaK asked me to post this (Blogger doesn't like her account or device, we haven't been able to figure it out 😖)
"Negative or positive phrasing, doesn't matter, just be good and kind with others. "
I prefer the positive expression, although, as you pointed out, the Golden Rule is a universal concept, (including Confucianism "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself"). What's important to me is that worldwide, people have recognized the importance of thinking of others as one lives one's life. That we are not here for ourselves alone. Even the John Donne poem: "No man is an island," gives homage to it.
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