Viewing Single Post From: Morality

Viewing Single Post From: Morality
Nick	Nov 20 2008, 09:31 PM
Brit Posts: 6,491 Group: Judge Member #659 Joined: March 8, 2006	2:22AM; just late enough for me to want anything to do with this horrible business. Morality is not comparable to maths. You can look at two cows and say 'there are two cows', and that is inherently correct, because it is absolutely verifiable. You can look at a human taking an orange from another human's market stall, and say 'that is wrong', but that is an enormously subjective question because of individual circumstances. If you were to go deeper in and assume that everything about the man's situation was known; that he was starving and unable to afford the orange, and that the market stall owner was rich and greedy, the question still requires a line to be drawn: is the fact that no real ill effects will be suffered from the theft enough to justify it? Or is stealing never justified because if it is allowed once, why not another time? Where exactly is the line drawn as to an 'acceptable' theft? That question has no absolute answer, ergo, it is not objectively verifiable as a mathematical truth is. My own view is that morality is dictated by the most persuasive speaker, and after that is largely democratic; it is determined by the powerful majority of any given period. Anyone who disagrees with the view they have been persuaded - through whatever means - to hold is wrong and alienated. I guess that the most moral society is the happiest society. Certainly not necessarily the most logical or flourishing society ~~but as long as everyone remains completely legless at all times, they get the go-ahead~~ Various people have tried to apply logic to morals; I think Immanuel Kant probably went the furthest with his Categorical Imperative, but even that wasn't enough to establish set moral truths. Merely stating and restating that morals are an absolute value which we have to discover certainly isn't convincing anybody. Do feel free to make attacks, after all, getting in a tizz over nothing is one of the most important features of philosophy.
	jesus somebody get onto msn

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