<<Well, if you leave out the moral component, e.g.,
as you put it "oppressive guilt," or "afterlife in
hell," you also would have to leave out the sense
of honor, and the sense of self-worth, the sense
that some things are beneath dignity, and so
forth. If you take all that out of the picture,
what is going to stop any of us from doing
anything we want to, including rape, pillage,
robbery and murder? >>
If you add to that list a few other items, such as social shame for self and family, fear of being shunned, fear of punishment... well, nothing.
<<I'd be interested in your
construction of a mental state that will allow adultery but
won't allow other wrong-doing. >>
I can't construct that. If someone thinks adultery is both equally wrong and equally likely to cost him something on the list above as is some other form of wrong-doing, the only thing more likely to make him commit adultery is that he wants it more urgently than he does the Acura.
Penni said something earlier about the ability of people to rationalize positions to which they are committed. It is easier to rationalize adultery, for many people, than to rationalize stealing an Acura (though not stealing paperclips or Scotch tape from the office, perhaps.) |
