Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

38 JOSEPH A. SELLINGent aspects of the moral event need to be assessed according todifferent criteria.As far as relation is concerned, what one seeks is a sense ofbalance or proportion between all the distinguishable and differentbut in the specific moral event unified aspects that mustfunction together. The choice of a given activity might seemappropriate in one set of circumstances but not appropriate inanother set of circumstances. Exactly how a psychotherapistmight be “honest” toward a client at the beginning, the midpointor the climax of a therapeutic situation can be different,just as the amount or kind of “honest” information the psychotherapistmight use to inform, challenge or reassure a clientalso demands a sense of appropriateness. This is the role ofproportionate thinking.Contemporary Moral SituationsJohnstone claimed that proportionate thinking involves aseparation between subject and object. He seemed to think thatdesignating something to be pre-moral separated it out from anintegrated moral assessment. What he did not realize was thatthe concern of those who are advocating a “sense of proportion”is precisely the opposite, to reunite the many and diverse,distinct but not separate aspects of an integrated moral event.Johnstone also failed to appreciate that the approach tothinking about morality in a “proportionate” manner coincideswith the recognition of complexity and ambiguity in the analysisof moral events. The growing sophistication of mass communication,the expanding application of medical proceduresand treatments, the far-reaching consequences of economican appreciation of the human person (adequately and integrally considered).See, Schema constitutionis pastoralis de Ecclesia in mundo huius temporis.Expensio modorum partis secundae (Rome: Polyglot, 1965) 37-38.Also, see J. Selling, “The Human Person”, in Bernard Hoose (ed.), ChristianEthics: An Introduction (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1998) 95-109.