In a sense, in respecting you,
I am respecting myself, not arbitrarily, but according to the
rationality that binds us together and makes us unique in the order
of nature. In upholding the dignity of rational beings, I am
upholding my own dignity.
I saw this before and quite agree with it. My choice to behave morally stems from 1) I'm a nice person by nature, or experience, or inculcation, or whatever; and 2) my modeling a civilized society as best I can serves my interests in having a civilized society. I know what common decency means and am quite familiar with the Golden Rule.
I just don't see how you get from there to obligation/duty/responsibility. I see in that a social compact in which I choose to participate and in which I hope everyone else chooses to participate. I have no duty to participate and no obligation whatsoever to you unless I elect to.
It doesn't sound like we differ much, at a macro level, in what we consider right or wrong, only in our rationale for doing what we consider right. Does it really matter why we do it as long as we do it?
At the micro level, we (you and I and society) could have problems, though. I mentioned earlier that I considered it immoral to stand up your prom date. Would you also consider that immoral? Would society consider that immoral? I've heard people say it's immoral to masturbate or to eat animals. Are they on the list? Neither of them is inconsistent with common decency or the Golden Rule. There's no societal consensus on either of them. I submit that if we have certain obligations, there needs to be more clarity. If we make our own choices, then clarity is unnecessary outside our own heads.
Karen
EDIT: I just saw your subsequent posts.
The main idea is that we respect ourselves through
respecting others, and that we fulfill ourselves within the context
of an articulated society, thus having a stake in those rules which
tend to lead to social order and development.
You said what I was saying better than I. I completely agree with you. But I still don't see any duty to participate. |
