I don't agree with that. For one, I think "suffering" tends to be used too many different ways/it tends to be too vague, and even aside from that, I don't at all think that suffering is categorically bad.
Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
Yes indeed. Someone who doesn't accept that premise doesn't understand what morality is.MoralIdentity wrote: ↑March 25th, 2020, 4:59 pm I do, though, believe that to be moral you have to at least UNDERSTAND the premise of morality. I.E. that the well being of sentient life is important, and that the main goal is to eliminate suffering.
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
If you're claiming this definitionally, per your norm, you'd need to provide sources for that definition.GE Morton wrote: ↑March 25th, 2020, 9:24 pmYes indeed. Someone who doesn't accept that premise doesn't understand what morality is.MoralIdentity wrote: ↑March 25th, 2020, 4:59 pm I do, though, believe that to be moral you have to at least UNDERSTAND the premise of morality. I.E. that the well being of sentient life is important, and that the main goal is to eliminate suffering.
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
We do that the minute they're born into a human community, instead of hatching on a beach.MoralIdentity wrote: ↑March 25th, 2020, 4:59 pm "ted to save a drowning person, even if you can swim. Though, if something happens to that person, you might be morally responsible. Once we begin telling people what they HAVE to do, we are overruling their autonomy,
No, the community provides them with the tools to fashion a moral compass.which tosses their moral compass out the door.
Also to be immoral. If you don't understand the concept, you're simply amoral - innocent, free and utterly alone.I do, though, believe that to be moral you have to at least UNDERSTAND the premise of morality.
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
The veil of ignorance, and let's extend it.
Ok instead of entering the world as a human, not only being black, white, rich or poor - you enter it in a box not knowing what you are? Hell, you could be a brick, you might be a pig or cow but if you're lucky to be a human, that's great.. but most likely you won't be. Anyways now design society.
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
I really don't know what sort of positive system comes from economic activity getting smashed and how people come out better on the other side of it, especially when people realize that the value of human life is something that holds far better good times and becomes a much more pragmatic thing during bad times. On one hand we may not have any capacity to promise a better world, especially if the headcount of humans is a large part of the problem, or where natural events completely change the reality we live in enough to where significant enough numbers of people tribalize in the military sense, the fabric of society starts unraveling, and from there it ends up being unrecoverable by any means aside from brute force. I don't think most of the west is likely to unravel to that extreme but it seems like the whole globalist project of raising the standard of living and democratic inclinations of developing and middle-income countries might see something like thirty years of work go out the window in little more than a year.
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Re: Are we morally obligated to make the best form of society?
What sort of preferences/desires/etc. am I supposed to assume I have? The same as I have now wouldn't make sense if I'm a brick or something like that.Kaz_1983 wrote: ↑April 7th, 2020, 6:07 am Let's go with this thought experiment.
The veil of ignorance, and let's extend it.
Ok instead of entering the world as a human, not only being black, white, rich or poor - you enter it in a box not knowing what you are? Hell, you could be a brick, you might be a pig or cow but if you're lucky to be a human, that's great.. but most likely you won't be. Anyways now design society.
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023