Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
-
- Posts: 8558
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:08 pm
- Location: Professional Underdog Pound
Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another. Therefore, if there were only one living being in the entire universe, then ethics would be unnecessary.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
And just about EVERY thing else would be unnecessary as well. But so what?Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 2:16 am Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another. Therefore, if there were only one living being in the entire universe, then ethics would be unnecessary.
-
- Posts: 12913
- Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:41 am
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
Ethics [Morality] is confined only to humans, not non-humans [living].
This is a ridiculous thought experiment, but if insist..
Even IF there is only one human, Ethics [as defined] is still applicable to oneself as a human.
Suicide is an ought-not-ness within Ethics.
It is immoral for one human to commit suicide.
This is a ridiculous thought experiment, but if insist..
Even IF there is only one human, Ethics [as defined] is still applicable to oneself as a human.
Suicide is an ought-not-ness within Ethics.
It is immoral for one human to commit suicide.
- FlashDangerpants
- Posts: 6437
- Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
Robinson Crusoe problems go whichever way you want them to.Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 2:16 am Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another. Therefore, if there were only one living being in the entire universe, then ethics would be unnecessary.
Your guy can have a duty to himself if you are wielding an ethics theory that deals in duties, or he can have Natural Rights in any form that doesn't arise from Other People (unless he can form a social contract with himself which is probably something that can be argued both ways).
Economists would put together some sort of producer and consumer economy for your one guy unless he lives in a vacuum.
Some philosophers would lose interest in ethics directly, but wonder if he even has a language to hold beliefs, desires and motivations in (taking BDM as the basic psychological ingredients of ethics)
-
- Posts: 2651
- Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2022 7:09 pm
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
I pretty much agree. Ethics and morality are entirely social in nature, as far as I can tell.Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 2:16 am Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another. Therefore, if there were only one living being in the entire universe, then ethics would be unnecessary.
- FlashDangerpants
- Posts: 6437
- Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
We're looking for the moral equivalent of the cogito right?
The event that is moral/imoral in world of such doubt that only one truth can be true.
A sin for a one handed man in a universe that contains nothing but himself.
I wank therefore I am naughty.
The event that is moral/imoral in world of such doubt that only one truth can be true.
A sin for a one handed man in a universe that contains nothing but himself.
I wank therefore I am naughty.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
If you had a spare hand you could spank yourself as a form of accountability.FlashDangerpants wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 10:18 am We're looking for the moral equivalent of the cogito right?
The event that is moral/imoral in world of such doubt that only one truth can be true.
A sin for a one handed man in a universe that contains nothing but himself.
I wank therefore I am naughty.
Alas.
- FlashDangerpants
- Posts: 6437
- Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
That's the next universe up the chain, it is the only one with moral balance.Skepdick wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 10:28 amIf you had a spare hand you could spank yourself as a form of accountability.FlashDangerpants wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 10:18 am We're looking for the moral equivalent of the cogito right?
The event that is moral/imoral in world of such doubt that only one truth can be true.
A sin for a one handed man in a universe that contains nothing but himself.
I wank therefore I am naughty.
Alas.
Although its evil twin universe uses the other hand for a more delicate operation upon the rear.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
WHO CLAIMS that it IS IMMORAL for one human to commit suicide?Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 3:34 am Ethics [Morality] is confined only to humans, not non-humans [living].
This is a ridiculous thought experiment, but if insist..
Even IF there is only one human, Ethics [as defined] is still applicable to oneself as a human.
Suicide is an ought-not-ness within Ethics.
It is immoral for one human to commit suicide.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
VA has his own Alice in Wonderland way of looking at ethics. Prepare to leave logic behind if you talk to him.Age wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 1:06 pmWHO CLAIMS that it IS IMMORAL for one human to commit suicide?Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 3:34 am Ethics [Morality] is confined only to humans, not non-humans [living].
This is a ridiculous thought experiment, but if insist..
Even IF there is only one human, Ethics [as defined] is still applicable to oneself as a human.
Suicide is an ought-not-ness within Ethics.
It is immoral for one human to commit suicide.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
I'm afraid your 'one essentially true thing' is false. It's possible to have an ethical system which doesn't involve 'ought' at all, it only involves good and bad. Such a system goes under the name Purely Evaluative Moral Realism, and it's discussed here: https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/30511/1 ... Thesis.pdfGary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 2:16 am Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another.
-
- Posts: 8558
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:08 pm
- Location: Professional Underdog Pound
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
Is this to say that someone is "good" or "bad" purely for who or what she or he is or for reasons outside of his or her agency? For example a person born without feet might be bad by virtue of the "bad" trait s/he was endowed with that makes him or her unable to do good deeds that require walking?CIN wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 1:43 pmI'm afraid your 'one essentially true thing' is false. It's possible to have an ethical system which doesn't involve 'ought' at all, it only involves good and bad. Such a system goes under the name Purely Evaluative Moral Realism, and it's discussed here: https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/30511/1 ... Thesis.pdfGary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 2:16 am Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
True/false. Good/bad. Yes/No. 1/0.CIN wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 1:43 pmI'm afraid your 'one essentially true thing' is false. It's possible to have an ethical system which doesn't involve 'ought' at all, it only involves good and bad. Such a system goes under the name Purely Evaluative Moral Realism, and it's discussed here: https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/30511/1 ... Thesis.pdfGary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 2:16 am Ethics always involves notions of how one living being 'ought' to relate to another.
Still just binary categories.
Effectively one and the same problem.
-
- Posts: 8558
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:08 pm
- Location: Professional Underdog Pound
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
The OP as worded states "one" thing that is (so far) "essentially true" about ethics. I don't pretend to know that there aren't other things that might be "essentially" true about ethics. And perhaps even the one thing I mention can be demonstrated not to be essential.FlashDangerpants wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 10:18 am We're looking for the moral equivalent of the cogito right?
Maybe think of it as crowd sourcing funamentals of ethics. Whether or not those fundamentals may lead to further conclusions or not is perhaps equally up for debate as well. But it might be a good starting point for understanding ethics, it seems to me.
Re: Starting with one essentially true thing about ethics...
I agree. I learned 'this' after the first two or three responses from "veritas aequitas".CIN wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 1:32 pmVA has his own Alice in Wonderland way of looking at ethics. Prepare to leave logic behind if you talk to him.Age wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 1:06 pmWHO CLAIMS that it IS IMMORAL for one human to commit suicide?Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 3:34 am Ethics [Morality] is confined only to humans, not non-humans [living].
This is a ridiculous thought experiment, but if insist..
Even IF there is only one human, Ethics [as defined] is still applicable to oneself as a human.
Suicide is an ought-not-ness within Ethics.
It is immoral for one human to commit suicide.
But I just keep asking these type of questions, knowing that 'it' will NOT respond, to show how people like this one will just 'blurt out' and express what they assume or believe is true, but which they actually have absolutely NO proof AT ALL for.
That 'it' can NOT or will NOT answer the questions I ask shows and proves just how Truly CLOSED, and also REALLY BLIND, this one REALLY IS.