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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (70620)	6/30/2003 11:48:23 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

"It is good to be charitable, is a moral absolute" That is not a moral absolute; it is a language absolute. You've simply given a tautology: good is good. You might just as easily and correctly have stated that tall is tall, soft is soft, and salty is salty. Moral absolutes involve the idea that moral standards are not opinions of humans but exist as universal expressions of Law. These ultimate principles merely await our detection. In general there is nothing in Theistic beliefs in general which demands a belief in moral absolutism. It is not logically necessary that a Deity should have designed life to involve absolute moral laws rather than circumstantial laws. So saying that "good" giving is good does not provide a moral absolute. On the other hand, if you can say it is ALWAYS good to give in ALL circumstances then you may have identified a universal law independent of human subjectivity. Of course, you would be the first to discover such an example and such a law. Good luck! Inasmuch as human concepts such as good and evil are not known to be in the domain of physics...it remains a dubious quest from the outset to discover "moral" laws external to human consciousness and subjective opinion.

To: one_less who wrote (70620)	7/12/2003 1:43:06 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Pretty much everyone knows it when they see it. Now THAT is a proposition that is and has been subject to much abuse. And what you know when you see is unlikely to be what I know when I see and a third person is likely to see something different. So much for absolutes. Example: It is good to be charitable, is a moral absolute. "Greed is good." Remember that? "Wall Street"? Capitalism is based on that proposition, in a more complex form. So is capitalism an absolute evil?