Ethical Discoveries

I think that you pose a valuable but very tough question Chris. If Moses is claiming that the ethical must be linked to the moral in order for it to be efficacious and meaningful then he is also narrowing the directional possibilities of the historical narrative - perhaps leaving out histories that are socially seen as immoral by many but whose content may deliver paradoxes and revelations that point to a desired ethical end. Moreover, doesn't Moses' call for the coupling of the moral and the ethical limit the capacity for discussions that have no moral marking but which are still ripe with analtyic possibility and insight?

While I question the 'moral' stringency of Moses claims, I do believe he may have a point in that if historians are to believe that the ultimate goal of their work is to create social activism and improve humanity through the brilliance of historical narrative, then we must find ways to shock and realign moral thought. But to do so we must explore ethical issues that humanely rearrange our debased sense of what is truly moral. I must admit that I am elevating the status of the ethical over the moral purely based on my belief that moral issues are often couched in religiousity while ethical ones are less predicated upon assumptions about what is evil. If I understand him accurately then, Moses is saying that if you aren't going after moral issues that can be influenced positively by ethical anecdotes of historicity, then you are doing the discipline a disservice - for you are sidestepping the fact that prescribed definitions of morality are what is creating the obstacles and the barriers to influence the kind of change that we historians want to see happen in human civilization.

I'll close by saying that I applaud both White and Moses for devoting such deep attention to the question of, 'what' are the goals of history, and 'what' obligations should historians feel compelled to fulfill within their craft? However for both of these men the issue appars to be both personal and professional, ie. how can historians can go about consistently creating work that is as revolutionary and influential as the work being done by "science?" While I respect the discussion, I inevitably think that such lofty goals are for rare minds that can grapple with an issue that at present has no beating heart and renders no immediate answers, ye is still an issue that has substance and the early makings of something that will one day beat quite vigorously. May we write to the beat of our own narratives and attack moral issues that will be compelled to rearrange themselves through ethical rhetoricism.

In my own work with Japanese American baseball players during the 1930’s and 40’s in the United States I have been confronted with the issue of “sportsmanship”. Past and present scholars have defined sportsmanship as an ideology built upon the precepts of fair play, justice, fairness, and loyalty. Thus, the concept of sportsmanship is surely one of ethics and for that I hope Hayden White is proud.


What do you want Dirk Moses? What do you want White, Weber, and Nietzsche? Should I even be saying sportsmanship – or should I be saying sportspersonship? I’ll tell you what I think great minds, I think that sportsmanship is the eternal link – the moral and ethical solution to the competitive commodification of modernity – it is the panacea to all human ills because it is the most tangible expedient of democracy. Sportsmanship is the truest cousin to democracy and it can be measured – and it will be measured. I will judge, analyze, interpret, and hammer down eternal truths through the dialectic of sportsmanship. Why? Because I want to change the world by tackling moral issues with an ethical beauty that will rewrite the flaws of humankind.

Jamie Logan