The Samaritan – Taking Responsibility for Our Inner Lives

The second lecture will take up the figure of the Samaritan. We will closely examine his intentions and behavior in the parable, raising questions about how the Samaritan is meant to fulfill the love commandment given in Leviticus 19:18. We will focus on a detail about what moved the Samaritan to act once he noticed the stranger – he experienced splanchgnizomai or “a movement of his guts”. This detail illustrates that the Samaritan love ethic is based in a certain type of emotional vulnerability. How does this situate the Samaritan love ethic in modern virtue ethics?

We will compare the key features of the Samaritan's love ethic with the features of the more commonly studied Aristotelian love ethic. Aristotle’s love ethic treats love as one among many important virtues for eudaimonia. Love is only possible among those who are of similar virtue and able to reciprocate emotional connection. Love tends toward contemplation and shared activity. The lover experiences their beloved as a “second self”  Love of strangers is incoherent on the Aristotelian approach to virtue ethics.

The Samaritan love ethic agrees with the Aristotelian approach in that love is an experience of a second self. But vulnerability, not virtue, is the basis of the connection with the other person. Love is characterized by attention and tending, which may never be reciprocated. We will conclude this lecture by revisiting the methodological questions from Lecture One. Can we distill a complete moral theory from the details in this parable? What gaps remain?

All are welcome to attend the lectures, but please register at: https://tinyurl.com/wildelectures2