Lightbringers: A Philosophy Journal

From a presentation to the Melbourne Unitarian Church Philosophy Discussion Group, September 8, 2002

Definitions

Whilst the definition of morals derives from the Latin 'moralis', meaning 'custom', contemporary useage describes it as the judgement by which the goodness/evilness of a human action may be ascertained.

Note 'human action' - it is not possible to describe the actions of non-reasoning animals as moral. Animals are described as 'amoral', as distinct from human actions which are 'moral' or 'immoral'.

Introduction

It is obviously not possible in this single presentation to provide anything more than the most introductory overview to the topic of the use of reason by Unitarian thinkers. Nonetheless in doing so, some groundwork will be provided to introduce the notion of 'formal pragmatics' - an advanced analytic method for determining what constitutes a rational or irrational word or deed. Finally, and working on the presumption that people will be a little mentally exhausted of theory by this point, some suggestions can be made for the practical orientation of Unitarians that is appropriate to the tradition and to a Church institution.

From: Lev Lafayette (lev@student.unimelb.edu.au)
Subject: Liberal Islam
Original Format
Newsgroups: soc.religion.unitarian-univ
Date: 2002-07-11 19:18:05 PST

It is only necessary here to provide a capsule history of East Timor as nearly all present will be aware of most of contemporary history. Briefly
then, it is recorded that the Belu Tetun paid tribute to China before 1566, when Portuguese Domincans arrived. The Belu Tetun, "people of the
plains" had established a kingdom over most of the isle under the liurais or kings.