Conversation

Can generosity of spirit be taught? If so how? As in, looking for the best in people, giving them the benefit of doubt for motives, spotting their talents etc. I’ve rarely seen people flip polarities on this trait.
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Interesting that many replies are unconsciously substituting “learned” for “taught” and assuming a learning motivation that is itself sufficiently like generosity of spirit to beg the question. Learning a new value is not like learning a skill.
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I think a third party has to hack you to “value the value” first without you realizing If I don’t know Python I can still value Python knowledge enough to seek out the knowledge If I don’t have kindness I’m unlikely to value it enough to try to develop it
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Moral education has a bootstrapping problem in general. It is perhaps a category error to even call it education. Unless an accident destabilizes a value enough that it flips by itself, it takes manipulation or coercion by a third party. Which creates 2nd order morality issues
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I think if a systematic and ethical way to inculcate a value X without coercion exists, it probably requires waiting for a teachable moment where bad consequences demonstrate the problems of not-X and naturally trigger doubt. Then you can plant a seed of X that can develop.
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By no means guaranteed. For example, if an unkind act causes pain, rather than triggering doubt about what you see as “unkindness” it might reinforce contempt for “weakness” and reinforce the value of “strength”
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And what a wannabe teacher wants to teach as a “value” can easily be cast as a vice in a hostile frame, which might even be true. Eg kindness can look like cowardice and may actually *be* cowardice in denial. Valuing a value enough to want to teach it does not mean you possess it
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