Establishment of a new philosophy of chiropractic – Principle 1: The moral order
In establishing a new philosophy of chiropractic (PCM) There are principles that need to be explained. Principles serve as fundamental truths or statements that help lay a foundation for the reasoning behind the entirety of philosophy. There is an ongoing debate about the concept of individual ownership as well as concerns about the loss of ethics and morals in society.
In order to establish a new philosophy in chiropractic, principles must be created that form a framework. The political theorist Russell Kirk (1918-94) defined ten principles as “a body of feeling rather than a system of ideological dogmas”. In the endeavor to establish a PCM, this can be one of the most important principles that serve as anchoring principle.
This helps to answer the age-old question “What is good and what is bad?” and presenting and explaining the first principle known as the principle of moral order.
Defined moral order
There is a strong sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. These are guided by personal beliefs about justice and honor.
There is a belief in a basic moral order (right and wrong, justice and honor) guided by personal beliefs that a good society will develop and continue to exist. The principle of moral order is defined as the concept that human nature is a constant and moral truths are permanent. Some may argue that human nature can be changed. This premise is wrong in that human behavior can be changed, but a person must choose to change their behavior.
The human nature of a person cannot be modified or changed by an external authority because one has to choose to stick to the rule. Autocratic / totalitarian regimes are repressive because they try not only to conform people to a strict code of conduct, but also try to change human nature.
In order to understand human nature and its immutability, a review of the underlying aspects of human nature is appropriate. The term “nature” and our understanding of “human nature” are widely discussed. The classic understanding of “nature” related to things that have an inner principle of movement.
For example, a stone cannot move by itself – it has to be moved by another object, be it a larger object by gravity or by a person picking it up and throwing it. Things that have a “nature” are things that in themselves have a cause for movement: Plants grow by themselves, animals move and seek food, and humans do the same.
While human nature includes animal nature, there is an additional, most important force of man: reason. Humans have the power to think, the power to know. An animal moves to do things, but you can’t ask why it is doing it. People move by first knowing and then making a decision to move toward something they perceive to be good or to turn away from something that is badly perceived.
Humans have the ability to be playful – we enjoy physical activities like games / sports, but we also joke and are creative with our imaginations. Man is by nature scientific. We find ourselves putting things in order, creating categories, predicting how things will work, and testing that we were right. We use the power of our imagination to improvise.
People like to legislate too. We enjoy kinship, our rights, the goods we consume, status, obligation to our families, and the desire to pass that wealth on to our descendants. As legislators, we are looking for security. Every culture sets rules that regulate safety. Our use of objects, ie private property, is also legislative. The combination of security and our preference for objects / property results in the desire to have the freedom to protect our property, as nobody wants to have their property confiscated without a reason.
Man is a connoisseur (devotion to pleasure, comfort and high quality of life). People enjoy food, are festive with food, and enjoy many art forms. Humans are sexual beings and they secretly seek sex. And because of gender, there is envy and competition. People like to communicate and use gossip as a means of communication. People use language to communicate ideas of likes, dislikes, wants, needs, and wants. And with the ability to think, people are fallible and make mistakes.
While the above are listed in no particular order, the last one, “Communication,” is the most important. To use skills, science, and our imagination, we need the power of language to communicate those wants, needs, wants, likes and dislikes. Marxist governments are too repressive in their attempt to change human nature that ignores legitimate differences of opinion through criticism, i.e. the ability to speak freely, joke, or make mistakes.
The ideology of Marxism tries to put all people on the same level and urges conformity with the will of ideology. The same autocratic governments tried unsuccessfully to control people by confiscating their property, making consumer goods scarce, liking things they disliked, or controlling their ability to speak freely. In other words, you will enjoy your scarcity of products to consume and the opportunity not to have anything to say about it.
A new philosophy of chiropractic and harmony
The moral order recognizes harmony, that is, a harmony through consistency of thinking. This harmony does not exclude that all things one encounters will be in congruence and cannot be understood as “harmony of nature” as it is befitting for anyone who believes in harmony or order in the universe.
This principle negates the chiropractic principle of “order in the universe” since the universe is in constant chaos. The observation of a supernova from a distance, with all its colors, has the appearance of beauty. A supernova, however, is not a static structure and because of the cosmic radiation of the gamma rays it would be difficult to want to be near it.
ethics
There is currently a public image that is detrimental to the chiropractor profession when it comes to ethics and honesty.
The principle of moral order is embedded in ethics. With ethics it is interpreted that this principle serves as anchoring principle for a PCM. Many professions speak out what ethics are but do not seem to explain what constitutes unethical behavior. It is also recognized that strong and robust efforts must be made to condemn unethical practices that are below acceptable standards that can affect patient safety and the safety of the profession.
We must constantly ask the question and give a reasoned answer to it, “What does it mean to be a good practitioner of chiropractic?”
Internal and external order
There are two aspects of moral order – the internal order and the external order. The inner order of the soul is clearly the ethic that a practitioner must value. The moral ordering principle of the inner soul does not mean that one follows a religious sect or a certain theological belief system. Thus there is the freedom to pursue the religion, theology, and spirituality one wishes to follow, as well as the recognition of a higher power or God.
For example, a person may claim to be following the scientific method but still hold the view that God exists. The principle of moral order advocates that there is an objective truth in the universe and that it can be known. The scientific method is needed to understand the universe, but that does not mean that a person has to deny the existence of God in order to understand the human body, the environment and our interaction with it.
The principle of moral order is the external order of the community (a state in which supreme power is transferred to the people, for the people and by the people). The outer order of the Commonwealth is uniquely suited to chiropractic care.
A PCM should not only care about how to act / behave with personal and professional responsibility, but also about the future health of the profession. The external order not only serves the future of the profession. There is pride and appreciation for one’s country, the direction it is taking, belief in the uniqueness of its nation, admiration for its constitutional form of government and sovereignty along with the freedoms, achievements, language and preservation of its unique culture, heritage and its own Story . A PCM should take care of his or her own job. However, in order to practice a profession, a PCM must recognize and recognize the constitutional freedoms to practice their trade.
A principle for chiropractic
The basic definition of this principle applicable to a PCM can be formulated as follows: Moral truths are consistent and guided by solid ethics for patient care and professional conduct. These moral truths are supported so that people can live in a peaceful society.
TIMOTHY MIRTZ, DC, PhD, is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Secondary and Physical Education at Bethune-Cookman University.
JOHN MARTIN, DC, is a graduate of Bridgeport University and director of workplace wellness in Pennsylvania.
