And good reply...
But I think there are some moral principles that ARE absolute... I think either you have to say that morality is societally defined and therefore if the German society defined the holocaust as moral it was, or you have to say even if German society defined the holocaust as moral it wasn't.
But societies do define moral, right, in their own terms - at least, in terms with which the majority accept. When the majority - or some minority, or outside body, with sufficient force - dissents, those morals change. From some age or culture I'd wager there would be at least one acceptable - 'right' - practice which would disagree with any absolute wrong you or I might name: be it infanticide, paedophilia, genocide, slavery, cannibalism, incest, live sacrifice, whatever.
I believe that the Nazi genocide of Jews (and others they saw as unhuman) was unequivocally wrong, immoral, evil. They, presumably, did not. I don't and don't want to understand their mindset, but clearly an absolute wrong for me to them was not just acceptable but a positively desirable goal.
In other words, my morals are not theirs. No absolutes. Different cultures have different morals, different right and wrong. And however vile we find their practices, we can only condemn by our standpoint. I do hold that we can (should!) assert by force our POV against theirs: but it does not make ours 'right' in absolute terms. And, when it comes to force, 'God is on the side of the big battalions'... the greater force with the better weapons and better leadership will win. [Outside fables and wishful thinking, anyhow].
We may believe that there should be absolute standards of right and wrong, and most probably yours woud be broadly similar to mine... sadly, the Universe has no such laws. If you disagree, I'd suggest you consult the spirit of Charles I, who believed absolutely in the Divine Right of Kings to rule absolutely.
As for an individual moral sense.. bring up an individual away from society and its laws, and at best you have Huxley's 'Brave New World'.
Children? Fair and reasonable? 'Lord of the Flies'. For an amusing alternative, read the philosophy in 'Starship Troopers' (seriously - it's cogent and doesn't play with semantics). A moral sense is learnt, not innate.
Or ask how a doctor's ethos, training and Hippocratic Oath could result in Dr. Harold Shipman [if you haven't heard of him, check news.bbc.co.uk - he's now ranked as the world's second most prolific serial killer].
As Einstein almost said, all is relative... |
