Virtue Friday: Sense or sensibility

Sense meaning, having sense or being a matter for rational consideration. Sensibility meaning a feeling or what we now mean by "sense", which confusingly, is not what it used to mean.

The old sense of "sense" still lingers alongside the current sense: When we say something makes sense, we mean it's logical and not irrational. But when we say "I have a sense that" we mean something personal that cannot be explained, "something that can only be felt".

So which of these is the material of conscience?

In describing conscience in the sense that both believers and non-believers share, Hogan writes:

Although it often vague and indefinable, it [conscience] is rightly regarded with reverence. Indeed, the language of conscience unites people of all faiths and none. This is because in modern Western society at any rate, conscience refers to deeply held moral convictions of the person. It puts us in touch with that dimension of ourselves which seeks to do the good. Conscience refers to an inner sense of what is right or wrong in the person's intentions and activity.

I think that is contradictory and ill-defined. Here are two sentences from that quote:

1. .... conscience refers to deeply held moral convictions of the person. 
2. Conscience refers to an inner sense of what is right or wrong in the person's intentions and activity. 

So which one is it?

A conviction is a firmly held belief. A sense is either a feeling or it is something like eyesight only a sort of "inner eyesight".

Going at these one at a time, the crucial difference is the implicit claim that feelings and senses can't be wrong. We can be mistaken about what we sense but that has a different moral aspect to it than having a belief that is wrong. A belief is something I am responsible for.

A sense comes to me and I don't know how. Describe the smell of coffee or nausea. It can't be done without circularly referring back to the thing we are trying to describe. The coffee smell is the smell that is like the smell of coffee. What is nausea? It's the feeling you get before you throw up. Okay but describe it? You can't, nausea is the feeling you get when you are feeling nauseous.

Beliefs and an "inner sense" are two different things and it's hard to see how conscience can be like both of them. This confusion runs through Hogan's book from the beginning to the end.

Convictions


"Conviction", meaning a firmly held belief is a good word not used often enough. (Although Hogan's "deeply held moral convictions" is either a redundancy or a  sign that she doesn't know what the word means.) In any case, I like word because it goes to virtue.

A belief has to be maintained. It is not a matter of belief that this post exists. Anyone looking at it will not puzzle about whether or not it is an illusion. But if I erased it tomorrow or it disappeared because of some glitch in the software, we might wonder if it had existed. Logging on, we might say, "Maybe I just imagined it."

As time goes went on, to believe that this now non-existent post had once existed will take an effort. It's not just a matter of telling myself to believe it I have to continually remind myself of it otherwise I'll just forget about it. Try it with something trivial. Say to yourself, "I'll never forget the license plate on that bus." It's not just that you'll forget the number you'll forget that you didn't want to forget it.

I don't have convictions about things that don't matter to me. When I say I have a conviction part of the implication is that this is a belief I have built my life around.

Can feelings be a matter of virtue?

Yes they can and here there is fascinating overlap with Sense and Sensibility. Marianne's (somewhat justified) feeling of moral superiority stems from her developed sensibilities as compared to the less developed sensibilities of some some others.

If a belief has to be maintained, feelings have to be developed.

Think of musical notes. To an untrained ear, two notes are just different notes. Some people are not even be able to say for certain which is higher; they can only say that two notes are different.

If I take the time to train my ear, I will develop that ability. I may even get to the point where I can specify the interval between two notes and say, "That's a major third," or "That's a diminished fifth." And that is true of all our senses. I can teach myself to distinguish different wines, to recognize faces by touch. In theory anyway. We also recognize that there is a limit to my potential and that some people will just be more sensitive than others.

But, whatever my sensibility, I could develop it if I chose.

We can even do this with sensibilities that are not physical senses but that we understand in ways that are analogous to physical senses.  I can understand poetry but I also can learn to feel poetry. That is to learn to see a beauty in poetry that is not a matter of my agreeing or disagreeing with the literal meaning of the words but rather with my sense of how they mean. Again, I think of Marianne Dashwood.

So we have two models for conscience. One is driven by convictions and another is based on feelings. Which is right? I don't know yet. It's one of the things I hope to figure out as I go along.


I thought I believed

It's interesting that we have an expression like "I thought I believed." It gets five million hits on Google.

"I used to think I believed," gets 27 million hits.

Neither expression means the same thing as "I used to believe". We don't use it the same way. There is a sense of failure. It can work two ways. 1. I am disappointed that I once thought that way. 2. Or it can be a confession, as in  I tried to be believer but I failed.

I thought I felt?

Well, sort of. Why did you jump? Because I thought I felt something crawling up my back. We felt something but identified the cause incorrectly.

But we never say I thought it was a very moving speech while I was listening to it but later decided I wasn't moved. No, we don't say that. We might say, the first time I heard his speech I was moved but now when I listen to the recording I wonder why.

The virtue of feeling is a matter of being responsive to something. The virtue of belief is almost opposite to that. It is the ability to remain constant. Margaret continued to believe in her marriage even though she was excited by Stephen's flirting.


So is conscience a matter of sensibility or sense? I still don't know.