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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: tejek who wrote (150580)8/28/2002 4:27:57 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 1585851
 
Tim, if they are not based on this culture, from where do you derive your absolutes?

Have you ever taken an ethics course or even an intro to Philosophy course? If it is absolutes, it isn't mine or yours or Saddam's it simply is. Opinions about the absolutes (rather then the absolutes themselves) are derived from logic and reason ideally but of course they are also influenced by things like culture, the opinions of friends and family, and emotions.

Tim

utm.edu

utm.edu

Here is one person's attempt to produce something in between absolute morality and real moral relativism -

scalzi.com

"On the flip side, it's difficult to intellectually
to support a position on morality whose
finally reductive argument leaves room for
the aforementioned genital mutilation or
shoving little girls back into a burning
building to die because their heads aren't
properly covered, as so recently happened
in Saudi Arabia. Neither argument satisfies
because neither argument has anything to
do with the real world.

Here's an argument that I think works: Yes,
morals are relative to culture and
independent of any larger, overarching
system of morality that all of humanity
shares. But if one believes that morals are
relative to cultures, it does not therefore
follow that one must believe that all
cultures are created equal, or that the
moralities therein are equivalent. This is an
argument that allows you to say: "Your
morals are rooted in your culture -- but your
culture truly sucks."

However I think that if you can say that a culture sucks because of its moral ideas you are saying some moral ideas are better or more right then others. I think the writer wants to get the benefits of absolute morality without the label and I'm not sure it really works.

Tim
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