By LEONARDO BOFF*
There is a kind of tragedy in our history: the “daimon” has been practically repressed and forgotten.
Undoubtedly, among the many crises that plague our current civilization, the crisis of ethical and moral conscience is one of the most serious. There are analysts who consider the eclipse of ethics to be one of the main causes of the current impasses, of the despair and of the anguishing question: If we follow the current course that has suppressed ethical conscience and with it the sense of co-responsibility for “a global community with a common destiny for all humanity,” to use a happy expression often used by Xi Jingping of China, we could, through our own fault, lead to a very serious situation, possibly the end of our existence on this planet.
We do not intend to delve into this line of thought with all the plausibility it contains. Our purpose is simpler: in times of grave perplexity, of the erosion of hopeful utopias and of uncertainty about what destiny awaits us, it is urgent to return to those minimal data from which ethical awareness arises and rephrase them for our current moment.
I take two Greek concepts as a reference, because it was in Greece, in the midst of a great crisis of transition from a mythical vision of the world to a rational vision with great philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus, that philosophy and ethical thought were developed, which are still valid today. The categories are Greek but touch on a universal value: the “daimon" it's the "ethos".
It should be clarified at the outset that “daimon” has nothing to do with the devil. On the contrary, it is the good and protective angel. The “daimon"for the classical Greeks it is synonymous with deep and inner consciousness (syneidesis) that voice that never shuts up, like a judge who calls us to do good and gives us a bad conscience for the evil we do. It belongs to human nature as much as intelligence and will.
Socrates, who always let himself be guided by it, called it a “prophetic voice within me, coming from a higher power” or also a “sign from God”. Later, the great thinker Seneca considered the inner consciousness to be the seat where God dwells (prope est a te Deus, tecum est, intus est). Philo of Alexandria, also a great philosopher, saw in consciousness the presence of the Divine in the soul.
The fact is that the “daimon”-conscience means that inner voice that always accompanies us. It is not in our power to silence it. The criminal or the corrupt – and there are many among us – can run away, hide from justice, but he is always being prodded by the inner judge who condemns him for his wrongdoing and who does not leave him at peace.
Or that living and deep feeling that applauds the gesture of generosity that we have made towards the hungry person on the street. We are all bearers of the “daimon-consciousness” for the simple fact of being human with spirit, subjectivity (our deepest self) and free will, men and women, capable of doing heinous things (even the most hidden ones) or honorable things that gratify us.
"Ethos” is another Greek concept from which we get the word ethics. Ethos means the human dwelling, not simply the material building. The dwelling must be understood existentially as that space worked by us, which protects us, within which we live and coexist, distributing all the spaces, the place of the living room, the bedrooms, the kitchen and the pantry.
Every home-ethos must have its own good aura that makes us feel “at home”, especially when we return from work or a trip. This includes the sacred corner (the place of the goddess Hestia, protector of the home), where we keep photos and cherished memories, the candle that burns or the saints we are devoted to. The home-ethos includes caring for and having a good relationship with our neighbors.
Heraclitus, the brilliant pre-Socratic philosopher (500 BC), combined the two words in aphorism 119: “the ethos is daimon of the human being” is to say, “the home is the guardian angel of the human being”. This formulation hides the key to an entire ethical construction in simple and practical terms, valid for our dark times.
Being faithful to this good angel makes us live well in our homes, individually, in the city, in the country and on planet Earth, our Common Home. Everything we do to live well together (happiness) is ethical and good, the opposite is unethical and bad.
However, there is a kind of tragedy in our history: the “daimon” has been practically repressed and forgotten. In its place, ancient philosophers, or modern ones such as Christian morality or Immanuel Kant and others, have put forward ethical systems, with moral principles and norms, often considered valid for everyone, disregarding the uniqueness of each culture and the changing times.
But, regardless of these changing factors, the voice of the good angel never stops speaking and making itself felt, regardless of our will, even when it is confused with the thousand other voices that are heard in society. If we want a lasting ethical revolution, we must free the “daimon” – conscience, covered in the ashes of our selfishness, consumerism and the spirit of slander and brutality in personal and social relationships.
To dismantle our inhuman paradigm for a new liberator we must begin to listen to the “daimon” again and take seriously the “ethos”, as a home not only personal, but planetary. In short, it is ethical common sense. It will suggest to us how to order the home that is the city, the State and the planetary Common Home. We have no other way out.
Listen to the “daimon” and cultivate the “ethos“that affect every person, universally, can bring about some general peace and give rise to an attitude of respect for nature and an ethic of care for our Common Home. This can save us. Then a general reconciliation between humans and nature can emerge.
*Leonardo Boff is an ecologist, philosopher and writer. Author, among other books, of Caring for our common home: clues to delay the end of the world (Vozes). [https://amzn.to/3zR83dw]
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