Thread: Philosophy
View Single Post
Old 2012-10-29, 10:39   Link #32
TinyRedLeaf
Moving in circles
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
Quote:
Originally Posted by willx View Post
Kant's categorical imperative...
...has been shown to be flawed, but I no longer fully remember how the rebuttals worked. Something along the lines of how Kant went in a roundabout way to basically confirm and reinforce Christian morality; more prosaically, Kant tried very hard to show it was possible to not just think of absolute morality but also to behave as though it does, in fact, exist. If I recall correctly, he produced the thesis in response to British empricism, which broadly pushed the view that if a concept cannot be experienced physically, then it cannot really be known.

Suffice to say that Western moral philosophy has long since moved on. Still, for anyone interested in learning how epistemology can be applied to the study of morality, Immanuel Kant's categorical imperatives are as good a place as any to start.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ascaloth View Post
I would say the "Golden Rule" is a good place to start this particular discussion from.
Do we practise "good" behaviour only because we hope others will do the same for us? Is "goodness" not its own reward?

Quote:
Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde View Post
I don't think we can define "good" in an absolute sense, or pinpoint what makes something "good" to a single cause. The definitions will always vary as social conditions change and a lot of factors are always in play.
Then what does it mean to label something like genocide "evil"? It may be the flip side of the dichotomy, but if we say that "good" cannot be absolutely defined, the same is also true for "evil".

Quote:
Originally Posted by TooPurePureBoy View Post
I think the answer to that is many-fold but in more modern sense I believe most would think good is anything that brings us closer to "joy". Anyone can see with even a modicum of forethought that this will bite us in the ass one day.
You'll have to explain what you mean by "joy". And, as you seem to already concede, you'll find that it's an incomplete definition of "goodness".
TinyRedLeaf is offline   Reply With Quote