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From: jim@ISM780B.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: What is morality anyways?
Message-ID: <27500097@ISM780B.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 12:51:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ISM780B.27500097
Posted: Thu Aug 15 12:51:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 21:35:27 EDT
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Nf-From: ISM780B!jim    Aug 15 12:51:00 1985


[wingate]
But I think that's the whole point.  If I'm walking down the street, and I
want an ice cream cone, so I buy one: do we really care about that as a
moral dilemma?  It seems to me that you can't be talking about morality in
any meaningful way until you are dealing with conflicting wants.  To simply
define morality as "that which tells us what to do" is plainly wrong to me.
There are a number of different reasons why we decide things.  We can do it
on the basis of simple desires, as in the above case.  We can reason out a
course of action.  But it seems to me that most everyone acknoledges the
existence of a faculty called the conscience, which only acts to forbid a
desire from being acted out.

[balter]
Excuse me if I didn't make it clearer that morality is "that which tells us
what to do" *if there are reasonably competing alternatives*; I would think
that was obvious.  If there is no conflict, then there is no issue of
decision.  Aside from all the possible political issues involved, some
persons consider the self-indulgence of eating an ice cream cone as a
moral issue.  If two people are walking down the sidewalk and want to
take off their clothes and make love, do we really care about that as a
moral dilemma?  It wouldn't bother me any more than my eating an ice cream
cone bothers you; we have different moral perspectives.  I consider eating
ice cream in public as setting a very destructive example for children;
how does this differ from many people's attitudes toward public sex?
(one answer: they want to legislate against it)
You don't seem to be able to escape from the belief that *your*
moral views are *universal*.

-- Jim Balter (ima!jim)