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Absolutes ..?
- Thread starter Xzorter
- Start date
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You're using one word ("law") to describe several different things. The "Law of Gravity" really has nothing in common with whether it's ever OK to lie or steal.
Off the top of my head, gravity exists throughout the universe (not just Earth) and can be described by the same mathematics everywhere. Nobody makes it that way, it just is.
Whether lying and stealing are acceptable depends on the circumstances. Habitual liars and thieves are obnoxious people to deal with, and I'd like to be protected from them to the extent possible. But I can imagine situations where lying and stealing are the least bad choices. I hope I'd have had (say) the courage to lie to a Nazi about where a Jew was hiding. I'd steal food for a hungry child if there was no better way to get it and the person I was taking it from could spare it. Rather than simply saying that lying and stealing are always wrong, I'd rather create a society where they're hardly ever the least bad alternative.
Off the top of my head, gravity exists throughout the universe (not just Earth) and can be described by the same mathematics everywhere. Nobody makes it that way, it just is.
Whether lying and stealing are acceptable depends on the circumstances. Habitual liars and thieves are obnoxious people to deal with, and I'd like to be protected from them to the extent possible. But I can imagine situations where lying and stealing are the least bad choices. I hope I'd have had (say) the courage to lie to a Nazi about where a Jew was hiding. I'd steal food for a hungry child if there was no better way to get it and the person I was taking it from could spare it. Rather than simply saying that lying and stealing are always wrong, I'd rather create a society where they're hardly ever the least bad alternative.
Xzorter
Skilled Investigator
So, I would steal if I determined the person could spare it.The question becomes who is to make that determination(if the person could spare it) or do I stand on the ethic that stealing always(absolutely)is wrong.When there are no absolutes don't we adjust our morals.If we do adjust our morals....isn't anything potentially acceptable?
"So, I would steal if I determined the person could spare it."
My example was if the situation was so dire that the alternative to theft was the death of a child, and if the theft would not result in the death (by starvation) of the person I stole the food from. Obviously this is not saying that theft is "OK", but that there are situations in which it may be the lesser evil. There are already plenty of times when we do "adjust our morals" and excuse people for doing things that ordinarily we would consider wrong.
My example was if the situation was so dire that the alternative to theft was the death of a child, and if the theft would not result in the death (by starvation) of the person I stole the food from. Obviously this is not saying that theft is "OK", but that there are situations in which it may be the lesser evil. There are already plenty of times when we do "adjust our morals" and excuse people for doing things that ordinarily we would consider wrong.
Xzorter
Skilled Investigator
What some absolutes.we have already justified stealing and lying, The way gravity and morals relate of course is both potentially being a Law.In the physical realm if you plant carrots,carrots will be harvested,and subsequently stealing from others will result in theft of ones own property(what you sow you shall reap) if in fact the law is absolute. I have found that theives are concerned about securing their possessions instinctively expecting their reward.
Is it ever acceptable to say..rape. Already justifying stealing (in ones own determination of circumstances).. Is their an absolute moral (law) that we are willing to subject ourselves to?or can every circumstance be justified by one's own shifting law.
Is it ever acceptable to say..rape. Already justifying stealing (in ones own determination of circumstances).. Is their an absolute moral (law) that we are willing to subject ourselves to?or can every circumstance be justified by one's own shifting law.