Moral Imagination and Moral Responsibility: Daniel Swartzman at TEDxUofIChicago
The speaker argues that the motivation for public health work is the "urge to care for the other," which requires the capacity of moral imagination to extend care beyond easily understood relationships. This capacity is revealed by telling family histories twice, which demonstrates that all individuals are fundamentally embedded in supportive communities. The speaker illustrates this with his own family's journey, detailing the support from Jewish organizations, his parents' employers, and the resilience shown by his ancestors during the Holocaust.
## Speakers & Context
- Speaker: Presenter, teaching Social ethics (or the ethics of public policymaking/lack thereof) at the University of Illinois Chicago for **35 years**.
- Setting: Academic talk/lecture at the University of Illinois Chicago.
- Occasion: Discussion concerning Public Health ethics, focusing on the concept of the "other."
## Theses & Positions
- The goal of Public Health is defined as *"preventing death at too young an age and eliminating unnecessary suffering."*
- Public Health motivation stems from *"our urge to care for the other."*
- The concept of the "other" is analyzed using a **2 by 2 table** based on two dimensions: whether the person is **real** or an **abstraction**, and whether you are **related** or **unrelated**.
- Caring for the "real and related" is easy; the "abstract and unrelated" is the most difficult type to care for (the *"truly other"*).
- Moral imagination must be stretched to find experiences and relationships with attenuated "others."
- Telling family stories twice, particularly in a landscape format, is a mechanism that stimulates moral imagination and proves community embedding.
- The most individualistic viewpoint, *"the most Libertarian of us,"* is living in the illusion of being alone.
- Successful community embedding enables the generation and mobilization of care for complicated "others."
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Public Health:** *"a place not a profession where scientists and social movements get together for the goal of preventing death at too young an age and eliminating unnecessary suffering."*
- **The Other:** A complex philosophical concept analyzed via the **2 by 2 table**, considering the axes of reality (real vs. abstract) and connection (related vs. unrelated).
- **Moral Imagination:** The requisite capacity to extend care beyond immediately visible or known circles.
- **Truly Other:** The abstract and unrelated category within the model, exemplified by the need to promote clean air when no direct recipient was present (e.g., the speaker’s early work at **The Lung Association**).
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **The 2x2 Table Structure:** Organizes the "other" into four categories:
1. Real and Related (e.g., one's own children).
2. Abstract and Related (e.g., the concept of one's posterity).
3. Real but Unrelated (e.g., a beggar; demonstrated by **Wesley Atrey** jumping into the subway tracks).
4. Abstract and Unrelated (the *"truly other"*).
- **Narrative Storytelling:** Telling family histories twice—once in portrait and once in landscape—reveals deeper, overlooked facts and connectivity.
- **Community Embedding:** The process of realizing one's existence and opportunities are dependent on invisible community support (geographic and historic).
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Childhood Incident (Glasses):** All three children bought the exact same pair of glasses while living **1,000 miles** apart.
- **Family Journey (Narrative Arc):**
- Born in **Odessa, Russia**.
- Fled the **Russian Revolution**.
- Traveled to **Warsaw**, Poland, where the family sought shelter with Catholic friends when **Hitler crossed the frontier into Poland** (**September 1st, 1939**).
- Moved to **Lithuania** after the initial Warsaw crisis.
- Reached **Kobe, Japan** on **December 8th, 1941**.
- Lacked papers and moved to **Shanghai, China**, where the father worked as a salesperson.
- Arrived in the **United States** with **$700** worth of hairnuts in **1947**.
- Father worked initially as a longshoreman in **Seattle, Washington**, before moving to **Chicago, Illinois**.
- The family achieved the middle to upper-middle class status that allowed for higher education.
## Named Entities
- **University of Illinois Chicago:** Location where the speaker has taught for **35 years**.
- **Wesley Atrey:** Person who jumped into subway tracks in **New York** to cover a falling man.
- **Father/Mother:** The speaker's parents; father was a Jewish businessman in **Odessa, Russia**, and later a salesperson in **Shanghai, China**.
- **Grandfather/Grandmother:** Ancestors; grandmother was in **Nazi-occupied Warsaw**.
- **Jewish Organizations:** Entity that paid for the speaker's parents to immigrate to the US and secured jobs for them.
- **Janette:** Person who was the speaker's parents' boss and paid for the speaker's college education.
- **Ray:** Person who was the speaker's parents' boss and paid for the speaker's law school education.
- **Brown University:** Institution where the speaker's sister attended on a full-ride scholarship.
- **IV League schools:** Group of educational institutions attended by the speaker's siblings (e.g., the speaker and his sister).
- **Congress (U.S. Congress):** Location where new town parents gathered to tell stories.
- **Chicago, Illinois:** Local setting, featuring both the **West side of the city** and the **suburbs of Chicago** as areas where moral imagination can fail.
- **New York:** Location of the subway incident involving Wesley Atrey.
## Numbers & Data
- Speaker tenure: **35 years**.
- Time between the discovery of the glasses: **1,000 miles**.
- Age of father during Soviet incident: **three years old**.
- Year Hitler crossed Poland: **1939**.
- Date of family arrival in Kobe: **December 8th, 1941**.
- Number of visas written by **Ciun Sugihara**: **over 2,000**.
- Amount of money arriving in the US: **$700** worth of hairnuts.
- Duration of sister's scholarship: **4 years**.
- Difference in location/funding knowledge: **12 years** ago the speaker learned about his parents' employers funding his education.
## Examples & Cases
- **The Glasses:** **Three** children buying the exact same pair of glasses while spread across **1,000 miles**.
- **Clinician's Patients:** The **real and related** group whom a clinician can physically interact with.
- **Jewish Ethnic Group:** Example of an **abstraction but related** group; the speaker notes the difficulty of caring for this group.
- **Unborn Posterity:** Example of an **abstraction and related** concept; the speaker feels related to his descendants.
- **Stranded/Beggar:** Examples of **real but unrelated** people.
- **Wesley Atrey's Action:** The case study of jumping into the subway tracks in **New York** when a man fell into the tracks, illustrating care for the **real but unrelated**.
- **Drunken Revelers in New Orleans:** Example of a group inspiring care despite lack of connection.
- **Suburban Man:** An example of limited moral imagination, unable to focus on infant mortality on the **West side of Chicago**.
- **Katrina Aftermath:** A case demonstrating activated moral imagination—a man driving a **big old truck** to collect clothing and travel **1,000 miles** to **New Orleans**.
- **New Town Parents at Congress:** Example of people in a public forum telling stories of lost children, activating moral imagination.
- **Father's Story (Holocaust/Migration):** Detailed narrative covering **Odessa, Russia**, to **Warsaw**, **Nazi-occupied Warsaw**, **Lithuania**, **Kobe, Japan**, **Shanghai, China**, and finally the **United States**.
- **The Roers Family:** A work-life example in Chicago where the father was promoted over sons due to his work quality.
- **Ed's Career:** Example where the company prioritized ability over lack of a college degree or speaking double negatives.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Glasses:** A specific pair of glasses bought by multiple family members.
- **Truck (big old truck):** Vehicle used during the Katrina aftermath to collect goods.
## References Cited
- **The Lung Association:** Previous area of environmental work mentioned by the speaker.
- **Holocaust Museum:** Location where the speaker revisited the details of his ancestors' survival.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Public Health Focus:** Choice between professional science/policymaking and social movements.
- **Modes of Care:** The difference between caring for the readily identifiable (real/related) versus the complex (real/unrelated, abstract/related, etc.).
- **Storytelling Medium:** Telling a story in **portrait** versus **landscape** format yields different amounts of detail and facts.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The speaker dismisses the idea that working in public health is purely for financial gain ("for the big bucks").
- The speaker notes that it is significantly harder to invoke care for **real but unrelated** people than for **abstract and related** ones.
- The initial Japanese consulate resistance regarding the visas underscores bureaucratic barriers to aid.
## Methodology
- **Questioning Students:** Beginning every semester by asking students their motivation for entering Public Health.
- **Narrative Storytelling:** Utilizing the deeply personal family history as the primary illustration mechanism.
- **Comparative Analysis:** Systematically using the **2x2 table** framework to classify the nature of "the other."
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The necessity of finding ways to stretch people's moral imagination to recognize connections to more attenuated "others."
- The primary recommendation: **Everyone's family story can be told in portrait and landscape.**
- The ultimate goal is to stimulate attention to moral imagination, recognizing that all people are *"inevitably embedded in community."*
- The final outcome must be the realization that one needs to advocate for the communities one belongs to.
## Implications & Consequences
- Failure to stretch moral imagination results in confining care to manageable circles (the "real and related").
- Recognizing community embedding prevents falling into the illusion of individual autonomy.
- Successful stimulation of moral imagination leads to the ability to mobilize care for highly complicated groups.
## Open Questions
- What concrete, scalable methods can be implemented to consistently teach and encourage the expansion of moral imagination beyond an individual's immediate, familiar social circles?
## Verbatim Moments
- *"for the goal of um preventing death at too young an age and eliminating unnecessary suffering."*
- *"it's easy to care for the real and related everybody cares for the real and related others in their lives"*
- *"we have the moral imagination that says we care for these people even though we don't know who they are we're not related to them we care for these people"*
- *"if they didn't have enough Humanity to see the humor in my father's three-year-old bravado they would have been killed"*
- *"Every family story... can be told in portrait and landscape"*
- *"the most Libertarian of us is living an illusion that we are all"*