>Yoshie Furuhashi:
> > ...
> > I should have perhaps added that the same goes for morality. The
> > moral has to be performed, not declaimed.
>
>I am mystified by the term "declaimed" since declamation has
>not been taking place, as far as I know. However, assuming
>it is merely hyperbole for "talking about", "rhetoricizing",
>or "making up rules for", then the precept violates itself.
I agree that taken as an ethical maxim, there's a problem of self-referentiality in my statement. :) Perhaps on this subject, the less said, the better. But I meant it as a suggestion for an instrumentalist approach (= shaping means to an end). Suppose your intention is to encourage ethical conduct. Which do you think is better -- discuss what is or isn't moral or hope to lead by examples, so to speak?
Yoshie