Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: $Revision: 1.6.2.16 $; site ISM780B.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!cca!ISM780B!jim 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 References: <341@aero.UUCP> Lines: 30 Nf-ID: #R:aero:-34100:ISM780B:27500097:000:1683 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)