Asked by “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to define “living ethically,” Heidi Giebel, philosophy professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, said her “short answer” is looking at it “in terms of virtues, positive character traits, living with things like gratitude, generosity, justice and courage.”
As a philosopher, she said she talks mostly about philosophical approaches to living ethically, which predate Christianity.
So how can ancient philosophers have anything to say to us in the 21st century? Giebel said their texts have withstood the test of time, with people today developing character in much the same way as those in the ancient world.
“They’re really ‘the greatest hits’ in philosophical ethics for a reason, right?,” Giebel said. Reading “a great text from Plato or Confucian thinker Mencius can speak to you in modern times, and you can get something new and profound out of every reading.”
Catholicism jives well with virtues the ancients discussed, Giebel said. But “going beyond it, we have those theological virtues … that God can put directly into us — that faith, hope and charity,” she said. “And those can help inform how we exercise the other virtues.”
Humility has a much bigger emphasis in Catholicism than in ancient Confucian or Greek ethics, and something St. Augustine “was really big on,” as was St. Thomas Aquinas, Giebel said. “That virtue of humility … is really going to help us to approach the other virtues and cultivating them the right way,” she said.
Giebel’s book “Ethical Excellence” focuses on two major wisdom traditions: Socratic — “Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, people influenced by Socrates” — and Confucian — Confucius and the classical Confucians Mencius and Xunzi (Hsün Tzu). Those in the latter tradition were “also writing in ways compatible with the Socratic tradition for the most part,” Giebel said, and “how living the virtuous life is living the good life.”
For the book, Giebel interviewed people who had won “national-level awards for doing great stuff for their communities.” Each illustrates “a signature virtue,” she said, and are included in chapters on virtues such as gratitude and honesty.
To learn more of Giebel’s suggestions for living an ethical life, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. July 14 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. July 15 and 2 p.m. July 16.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Felicitas Brugo Onetti, anti-trafficking education and outreach coordinator for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a speaker at next week’s Tekakwitha Conference in Bloomington, who addresses human trafficking; and Father Michael Van Sloun, director of clergy personnel and coordinator of the archdiocese’s Comprehensive Assignment Board, who explains the reasoning and the process behind clergy assignments.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at https://anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
