Irrefutable Ethics

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Philosophy Now
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Irrefutable Ethics

Post by Philosophy Now »

Richard Taylor on the intractable beliefs people hold about how we should behave.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/43/Irrefutable_Ethics
Scott Mayers
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Re: Irrefutable Ethics

Post by Scott Mayers »

I agree to the Richard Taylor's take on this. [Or is this my 'mirror neurons' firing?*]

The best we can hope for is to convene to negotiate our competing interests in what we find 'good' or 'not-good' to each of us and propose laws that could minimize interference in each others' differences.



*This was a reference for Veritas Aequitas here given a recent thread related to him/her arguing for a universal morality regardless of lacking religion or political convention. See Philosophy of Morality Different From Philosophy of Politics by Veritas.
commonsense
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Re: Irrefutable Ethics

Post by commonsense »

Intractables are everywhere, in every field of thought. When encountering an intractable, one should introspect to see whether his (opposing) belief is intractable as well.
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henry quirk
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Re: from Billy Bob, Space Trucker, chapter Quatre

Post by henry quirk »

“...do you read much?”

“Only my American Bible.”

“What’s that?”

“Let’s finish eating before I get a book out. Don’t wanna stain it.” She nodded at that and they ate the remainder of their meals. Finally Billy-Bob wiped his hands off on his shirt and tossed the plate over a shoulder and into his trash can without looking. Then he reached into a compartment near his feet and pulled out a leather bound book that had hundreds of little colored tabs on the side that he’d placed on certain entries. “Volume Three is what you’re going to want to read. One and two are also important but that’s the one that really gets at the heart of being an American.”

“Is it a religious text?”

“Ya see, yes and no. It’s complicated. Being American is sort of about transcending traditional religion. We think everyone is free to believe what they want in that sense. In fact as our bible states it is the solemn duty of every American to spread free religion everywhere. If we see two people arguing about what religion is best we kick the shit out of them until they behave because really all religions pale in comparison to being American. So they can believe whatever they want and shut the fuck up about it.”

Emily nodded slowly as she tried to process what he was telling her while looking at the book. “But it’s also a religion?”

“Well sure, we believe in Jesus since he was such a great guy. That’s in volume two. We used to believe he was the son of God, but kinda grew out of that and just believe he was an early peaceful American who got killed because everyone was jealous about how awesome he was. Then his spirit was reincarnated in the founding fathers. Only with violence added in because being peaceful sure as shit didn’t work out for him the first time.”

“What?”

“Just start reading. See, about a hundred years before contact we had a bunch of shitheads with religious extremist ideas around the world. There was this one guy in charge of a religion called the Pope. This guy was awesome, sort of like the original peaceful Jesus. Told people to get along and be nice, and stop being dickheads. But of course, dickheads didn’t like it and they killed him. Real dumb fuck move of course, cause the peaceful people got all pissed off. Everything went to shit. Then this guy in America realized that we needed to really do something about this shit once and for all.” Emily began to open the book and read portions of it as Billy-Bob kept talking. “So he made the new American Deism, like the founding fathers! It’s in volume three. So we stopped worrying about our own religions cause we realized our religion is to be American. You can still be American and a different religion, but you’re American first. Like American Jew, or American Satanist. Those guys can party! Shitty roommates though. Anyway, we went on a big ol crusade to kill everyone who wouldn’t allow free religion and settled shit real quick. Then we helped form a world government, but wouldn’t join it. Cause ours was better anyway.”

That made Emily look over with confusion. “Wait… your clan helped form the first unified government on your planet? And then didn’t join?”

“Yeah. It might have been okay for everyone else. But not us.”

“But you made it!”

Billy-Bob shrugged. “It’s hard to explain to non-Americans. If you visit earth for a while you’ll get it. Mostly it was because no one was willing to spend as much on Defense as we were anyway.”

“Your one clan outspent the rest of the world on defense?”

Billy-Bob grinned wide at that. “Yep. That’s how awesome we are.” She shook her head then as she pulled at the tabs. “Oh those are awesome bits I always like. Read em out loud!”

Emily hesitated as she looked at the print on the page and spoke up. “And yay, verily did the glorious first President George Washington in all his glory and splendor did deliver unto the face of the wicked King George, who might have the same name but was totally a shitty George in comparison, a wicked right hook and lay him out flat.” Billy-Bob was nodding as she read that.

“Fuck yeah he did. That man was so awesome we named our Capital after him, a State, and a whole day. He’s on our money, and we made him a monument to show that he had the biggest dick of em all.”

“He was a life time ruler?”

“No! That’s how awesome he was! Fuck I love reading about him and the other founding fathers. The second President was pretty boss too, his cousin brewed beer so I’m sure there were some serious parties in the white house while he was in office.” Emily was shaking her head as she continued to read the American Bible in her lap.

“There’s a section here dedicated to how to properly give people high fives, and thumbs up?”

“Oh yeah! Proper etiquette for all Americans.”

:thumbsup:
commonsense
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Re: Irrefutable Ethics

Post by commonsense »

Zowie! Very good.
commonsense
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Re: Irrefutable Ethics

Post by commonsense »

8)
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