Which Ethical School Do You Prefer?

[Agnapostate]

Too many people don't recognize the manner in which kin altruism and its expansion into communities has aided our society.

 

[garyd]

is that people simply don't fit into categories that well.

My views are something like this:

You get the right to believe whatever cockamamie thing you wish. You do not have the right to compel others by law or gun barrel to join you in those beliefs and doing so tends over the long haul to corrupt your organization in any case.
And if those beliefs differ from reality by very much then you run the risk of spending serious time in the nut house for your own protection as well as that of others.

I don't work so much to impress my boss as to glorify my God.

I think most people believe things not so much because they have spent a great deal of time in research to verify the facts but because that paticular thing makes them feel more comfortable.

Most people preferred the road more traveled because the path is easier and less dangerous.

9/11 didn't change the world it revealed it.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Too many people don't recognize the manner in which kin altruism and its expansion into communities has aided our society.

I don't know that they cannot recognize it once it's pointed out, but like most good things we take it all for granted.

Then again maybe I'm talking out of my ass?

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

is that people simply don't fit into categories that well.

My views are something like this:

You get the right to believe whatever cockamamie thing you wish. You do not have the right to compel others by law or gun barrel to join you in those beliefs and doing so tends over the long haul to corrupt your organization in any case.
And if those beliefs differ from reality by very much then you run the risk of spending serious time in the nut house for your own protection as well as that of others.

I don't work so much to impress my boss as to glorify my God.

I think most people believe things not so much because they have spent a great deal of time in research to verify the facts but because that paticular thing makes them feel more comfortable.

Most people preferred the road more traveled because the path is easier and less dangerous.

9/11 didn't change the world it revealed it.

what an odd post. very odd. don't you think the religious road you've chosen is the one much traveled? and what was revealed on 911? the terrorism or the heroism we all saw? are you stuck on the negative, is the glass half filled, do you have problems with others' life choices even though yopu preach a good game would you change everyone if you could?

 

[carpe deus]

Too many people don't recognize the manner in which kin altruism and its expansion into communities has aided our society.

Why do you insist that others meet your meta-ethical standards, considering the extreme improbability that you yourself meet them? Any utilitarian, whether classical, preference, or two-level, is faced with the reality that they are not promoting the maximization of utility if they take any action that does not involve rational sainthood. By posting on a forum such as this one, you waste time that you might use conducting aid work in Africa or China.

 

[Agnapostate]

Why do you insist that others meet your meta-ethical standards, considering the extreme improbability that you yourself meet them? Any utilitarian, whether classical, preference, or two-level, is faced with the reality that they are not promoting the maximization of utility if they take any action that does not involve rational sainthood. By posting on a forum such as this one, you waste time that you might use conducting aid work in Africa or China.

Have I ever claimed to be a moral or rational saint? I suppose an argument might be made that if we all packed our belongings and moved to Africa and China to conduct aid work, the greater amount of revenue we earn in an industrialized society would be depleted, and we would thus not be capable of impacting the poor conditions of those societies in a meaningful way.

 

[dilloduck]

Have I ever claimed to be a moral or rational saint? I suppose an argument might be made that if we all packed our belongings and moved to Africa and China to conduct aid work, the greater amount of revenue we earn in an industrialized society would be depleted, and we would thus not be capable of impacting the poor conditions of those societies in a meaningful way.

I don't see how you can conduct a discussion on ethics without defining the summum bonum (greatest good) anyway.

 

[Agnapostate]

I don't see how you can conduct a discussion on ethics without defining the summum bonum (greatest good) anyway.

You really can't, because we really all have common meta-ethical foundations to that effect.

But people like carpe deus choose to rant and blather on about applied ethical issues without addressing the common meta-ethical foundations that most of us have, and the links between meta-ethics and applied ethics.

 

[dilloduck]

You really can't, because we really all have common meta-ethical foundations to that effect.

But people like carpe deus choose to rant and blather on about applied ethical issues without addressing the common meta-ethical foundations that most of us have, and the links between meta-ethics and applied ethics.

Applied ethics might be OK for how you are supposed to behave in a business setting or group activity but that's about as far as I would give them any credence.

 

[Agnapostate]

Applied ethics might be OK for how you are supposed to behave in a business setting or group activity but that's about as far as I would give them any credence.

I don't understand what you mean by that. Every debate that exists about the ethical status of abortion, euthanasia, environmentalism, etc., is an applied ethics debate.

 

[dilloduck]

I don't understand what you mean by that. Every debate that exists about the ethical status of abortion, euthanasia, environmentalism, etc., is an applied ethics debate.

But they all lack a connection with what our ultimate goal as humans or individuals should be.

 

[Agnapostate]

But they all lack a connection with what our ultimate goal as humans or individuals should be.

Individually, perhaps. Collectively, applied ethics are a fundamental facet of ethics as a whole, if we want to be consistent in extending meta-ethical principles.

 

[dilloduck]

Individually, perhaps. Collectively, applied ethics are a fundamental facet of ethics as a whole, if we want to be consistent in extending meta-ethical principles.

Agreed--I just prefer to try use them as a means to determine the greater good and answer question like "what is our purpose". If the human mind had a goal or mission the applied ethical questions would sort of fall in place wouldn't they ?

 

[editec]

If you want live the pure life, except to live a poor life.​

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the heart and soul of philosophical cynicism.

 

[dilloduck]

If you want live the pure life, except to live a poor life.​

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the heart and soul of philosophical cynicism.

It depends on how you define "poor".

 

[editec]

It depends on how you define "poor".

It does.

As it pertains to cynicism, however, I'm defining it thusly:

Cynicism (Greek: Kυνισμό&#962 originally comprised the various philosophies of a group of ancient Greeks called the Cynics, founded by Antisthenes in about the 4th century BC.[1] The Cynics rejected all conventions, whether of religion, manners, housing, dress, or decency, advocating the pursuit of virtue in a simple and unmaterialistic lifestyle.[1].

source

 

[dilloduck]

It does.

As it pertains to cynicism, however, I'm defining it thusly:



source

I would disagree with poor equalling a simple, non-materialist life style. There are a lot of things to be said about the wealth that integrity and virtue bring.
(You can even be HAPPY sometimes)--for real !

 

[carpe deus]

Have I ever claimed to be a moral or rational saint? I suppose an argument might be made that if we all packed our belongings and moved to Africa and China to conduct aid work, the greater amount of revenue we earn in an industrialized society would be depleted, and we would thus not be capable of impacting the poor conditions of those societies in a meaningful way.

You are not a saint of any variety, least of all a moral or rational one, but your advocacy of a particular ethical system necessitates that you follow it and adhere to its guidelines to a greater extent than others would.

 

[Agnapostate]

You are not a saint of any variety, least of all a moral or rational one, but your advocacy of a particular ethical system necessitates that you follow it and adhere to its guidelines to a greater extent than others would.

On what basis do you deny that I do?

 

[carpe deus]

On what basis do you deny that I do?

On the basis that you are not conducting aid work in Africa and China. Every waking moment spent doing something other than that violates the principle of utility maximization.