In search of a moral compass across time and space: Notes from lunchtime ‘symposia’

Abstract

This is a created dialogue inspired by the genre of Plato’s Symposium. The dialogue starts with a chance meeting between old friends (Maryam, Cormac, Otis) where one of the characters (Maryam) outlines a moral conundrum she is experiencing. The characters subsequently ‘chew over’ this conundrum in Cormac’s house, in a good humoured way. They enlist the help of two key thinkers, Mikhail Bakhtin (189–1975) and Johann Fichte (1762–1814) who, under creative license, are granted a living presence. Their key ideas on the self are outlined or ‘extemporated’. These ideas cover the aesthetics and ethics of the dialogical mind seeking a moral compass. The points of difference between this social soul-searching psychology and an instrumental understanding of the self that bedevils some of psychology is ‘played out’.