Review of Compass
Posted: 09 Nov 2021, 13:34
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Compass" by I. Asturias & X. Guurink.]
Are you an ethical person? Are you a moral person? If you think I just asked the same question twice, consider reading the book Compass: The Crucial Difference Between Ethics and Morality, which gives an enlightening description of the difference.
The authors are a husband-and-wife team. Ingrid Asturias conceived the approach of defining human responses to situations by using relative and absolute terms. When she shared her ideas with her husband, Xander Guurink, he encouraged her to document them. Asturias’s background in graphic design and clinical psychology and the couple’s love of philosophy combined to make this read easy to comprehend, encompassing both spatial and linguistic learning preferences.
The theory is defined by four quadrants created by two axes. The x-axis holds relative values and is in grayscale. Everything on the relative axis is based on perception and can vary from situation to situation. For instance, whether something is big or small depends on what it’s being compared to. The y-axis holds absolute values and is in black and white. The authors describe the maximum positive y value as absolute good, while the maximum negative y value is absolute bad. Absolute values are based on adherence to intuition, which the authors define as “‘deep knowledge,’ which cannot be explained by reasoning or logic. It can be recognized as our inner guidance or inner voice.” Examples of absolute good (or goodness) include benevolent love, peace, thoughtfulness, and kindness. Examples of absolute bad (or evilness) include malevolence, hate, envy, and vengefulness.
As skillfully depicted on the book’s cover, the four quadrants outline different scenarios affecting human beings. Here is a simple illustration using one’s health on the relative axis. A person in the NE quadrant, “Living Heaven,” is experiencing relatively good health and operates in a spirit of kindness. A person in the NW quadrant, “Ataraxia,” may be suffering relatively bad health but still operates in a spirit of thoughtfulness and benevolent love. A person in the SW quadrant, “Living Hell,” is also suffering relatively bad health, but they operate out of hate and envy. And finally, a person in the SE quadrant, “Malevolence,” is fortunate to be experiencing relatively good health, but they operate out of vengefulness.
The first half of the book focused on giving clear definitions of words commonly treated as meaning the same thing. For example, the authors stressed the difference between guilt, a feeling (on the negative x-axis), and remorse, a knowledge of wrongdoing (on the negative y-axis). Sometimes this part felt tedious, but I appreciated the distinctions when I got to the second half of the book, which examined situations in each quadrant using the terms defined.
One thing I most appreciated was that the authors used a variety of scenarios to illustrate what happens when morality is no longer ethical or when ideas that start with good intentions become oppressive. They cited examples from different times in history and various countries around the world, using illustrations from religion, science, government, law, and journalism. The breadth of areas covered reinforced their concepts well.
An aspect I struggled with was the description of the absolute axis. Although I agree that absolute good and evil exist, defining it as a “deep knowledge” did not seem concrete enough to me. However, I do not have any suggestions for how it could be defined more tangibly. How does one describe one’s conscience concretely, or how does a Christian describe the Holy Spirit tangibly? It is truly an act of knowing. To gain the most from this book, the reader must accept that a conscience is a part of every human and they have the ability to access it.
I reviewed the PDF version of this text and have two suggested formatting changes. First, the table of contents was located before the references at the end of the book; I recommend moving it to the beginning. Second, the standard notation for the first quadrant in the Cartesian plane is in the NE quadrant (+x, +y), and the second quadrant is in the NW quadrant (-x, +y). The discussions reverse the locations of these two quadrants, referencing the NW quadrant as the first quadrant and the NE quadrant as the second. I suggest making them consistent with standard Cartesian coordinate system references.
I rate Compass 3 out of 4 stars, deducting 1 star because of the number of grammatical errors found and the formatting issues noted previously. This was a thought-provoking read that outlined a thorough proposition, and it contained no erotic content or profanity. I recommend this book to those who enjoy philosophical discourses about human nature and how we act and interact both individually and corporately.
******
Compass
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Are you an ethical person? Are you a moral person? If you think I just asked the same question twice, consider reading the book Compass: The Crucial Difference Between Ethics and Morality, which gives an enlightening description of the difference.
The authors are a husband-and-wife team. Ingrid Asturias conceived the approach of defining human responses to situations by using relative and absolute terms. When she shared her ideas with her husband, Xander Guurink, he encouraged her to document them. Asturias’s background in graphic design and clinical psychology and the couple’s love of philosophy combined to make this read easy to comprehend, encompassing both spatial and linguistic learning preferences.
The theory is defined by four quadrants created by two axes. The x-axis holds relative values and is in grayscale. Everything on the relative axis is based on perception and can vary from situation to situation. For instance, whether something is big or small depends on what it’s being compared to. The y-axis holds absolute values and is in black and white. The authors describe the maximum positive y value as absolute good, while the maximum negative y value is absolute bad. Absolute values are based on adherence to intuition, which the authors define as “‘deep knowledge,’ which cannot be explained by reasoning or logic. It can be recognized as our inner guidance or inner voice.” Examples of absolute good (or goodness) include benevolent love, peace, thoughtfulness, and kindness. Examples of absolute bad (or evilness) include malevolence, hate, envy, and vengefulness.
As skillfully depicted on the book’s cover, the four quadrants outline different scenarios affecting human beings. Here is a simple illustration using one’s health on the relative axis. A person in the NE quadrant, “Living Heaven,” is experiencing relatively good health and operates in a spirit of kindness. A person in the NW quadrant, “Ataraxia,” may be suffering relatively bad health but still operates in a spirit of thoughtfulness and benevolent love. A person in the SW quadrant, “Living Hell,” is also suffering relatively bad health, but they operate out of hate and envy. And finally, a person in the SE quadrant, “Malevolence,” is fortunate to be experiencing relatively good health, but they operate out of vengefulness.
The first half of the book focused on giving clear definitions of words commonly treated as meaning the same thing. For example, the authors stressed the difference between guilt, a feeling (on the negative x-axis), and remorse, a knowledge of wrongdoing (on the negative y-axis). Sometimes this part felt tedious, but I appreciated the distinctions when I got to the second half of the book, which examined situations in each quadrant using the terms defined.
One thing I most appreciated was that the authors used a variety of scenarios to illustrate what happens when morality is no longer ethical or when ideas that start with good intentions become oppressive. They cited examples from different times in history and various countries around the world, using illustrations from religion, science, government, law, and journalism. The breadth of areas covered reinforced their concepts well.
An aspect I struggled with was the description of the absolute axis. Although I agree that absolute good and evil exist, defining it as a “deep knowledge” did not seem concrete enough to me. However, I do not have any suggestions for how it could be defined more tangibly. How does one describe one’s conscience concretely, or how does a Christian describe the Holy Spirit tangibly? It is truly an act of knowing. To gain the most from this book, the reader must accept that a conscience is a part of every human and they have the ability to access it.
I reviewed the PDF version of this text and have two suggested formatting changes. First, the table of contents was located before the references at the end of the book; I recommend moving it to the beginning. Second, the standard notation for the first quadrant in the Cartesian plane is in the NE quadrant (+x, +y), and the second quadrant is in the NW quadrant (-x, +y). The discussions reverse the locations of these two quadrants, referencing the NW quadrant as the first quadrant and the NE quadrant as the second. I suggest making them consistent with standard Cartesian coordinate system references.
I rate Compass 3 out of 4 stars, deducting 1 star because of the number of grammatical errors found and the formatting issues noted previously. This was a thought-provoking read that outlined a thorough proposition, and it contained no erotic content or profanity. I recommend this book to those who enjoy philosophical discourses about human nature and how we act and interact both individually and corporately.
******
Compass
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
. So thank you for your great recommendation and the amazing review!
