Hey, I tried to gracefully deflect your earlier overture. If you were a gentleman, you would have let me. Surely being a gentleman is one of your principles... <g>
Seriously, I haven't been following the discussion. If I get some time, I'll try to catch up.
One thing that occurred to me while reading the post to which you pointed to me was that not everyone is governed by principles. You and I are two who are, but we are in a minority. I remember when taking the Myers-Briggs temperament test, one of the factors they were looking for is to what extent people operate from principle. It's one of those I'm OK, you're OK kind of things. People just deal with the world differently. For some people, the concept of a principle barely registered yet you and I are governed by them.
Seems to me that the concepts of things like kindness and charity aren't even universal, let alone any principles, like "it's better to give than to receive" that are derived from them. Seems to me that, if there were such a thing as an absolute principle, there would be more consistency across cultures. |
