So, I’ve been chatting with my buddies lately, and it’s turned into a bunch of debates about right and wrong. I think I have a pretty solid moral compass, I’m not bragging haha, but most people I know can’t really explain why something’s right or wrong without getting all circular or contradicting themselves.
So, how do you figure out what to do? No judgment, just curious. I’ll share my thoughts below.
Thanks!
Edit: Oh, all you lil’ philosophers have brought me a cornicopia of thoughts and ideas. I’m going to take my time responding, I’m like Treebeard, never wanna be hasty.
Be the person Captain Picard would want you to be.
From an old Irish friend I’ve known for many years
Whatever you do in life, no matter the situation or circumstances … always be kind
Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies-“God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
Great philosophy, gotta make sure people dont take advantage of that though.
It also acts as a filter in life … whenever you meet unkind people, you stay away from them
Whenever you meet people who would take advantage of your kindness … you kindly stay away from them
When you meet other kind people, you do your best to stay with them, live with them, work with them or encourage them
Everyone always remember a few key things in life … people remember others who were unkind to them … people also remember people who were kind to them.
Life is short and it gets shorter every moment … whatever you do in life … just be kind … because most of the people you will ever meet you will only ever know for that one moment or just for a very short time.
And if we err, let it be toward kindness.
Maybe it’s kind to not let people take advantage, force them to rely on themselves, thats a kindness.
Being kind to yourself counts as well.
Pee when you have the chance.
Or just
shitpiss on the floor 🎵When going out into the cold during the winter, especially if you are going on a bit of multi hour journey … poop first, even if you don’t feel like it.
How do you poop when you don’t feel like it?
I’m caught in a loop.
Hahaha, I know right!
I start with my ideal, which is “I want the most amount of people to be as content as possible for as long as possible.”
Then I build a heirarchy of groups in relation to the ideal, and it comes out in stepped groups, starting with me, immediate family, social group (further family, friends, colleagues), local community, government, humanity. This set allows me to target my focus, if Im content and safe, I can focus on helping my family be the same, and each level builds up to and allows for the next.
Now I can identify where to focus i need rules on how to act, i know what my goals is, but i need to make sure my actions arent counter to goal in some way, a set of rules like commandments (that can only be divined through experience) mitigate the possibility. Christianity does a good job of picking out the things that are counter to my ideal as it is, so mine are basically modelled after that.
- No killing
- No stealing
- Dont lie
- Dont covet
- No adultery (though I’d say this covers breaking any agreement/commitment made)
- There’s probably a couple more I’ve missed but I’m short on time
And for it to be fair for me to expect anyone else to follow the rules, i must first, this is the connection between rights and responsibilities If I want to claim a right, it is my responsibility to ensure others receives that right.
So basically I know if I follow that schedule, I really cant consciously do any wrong and can sleep right knowing I mad the best decision.
Let mek now if Im being incoherent anywhere, happy to discuss whatever.
- Human rights as a consensual starting pooint of what is good.
- Rational skepticism, ranking knowledge/belief based on the proximity to an international scientific consensus.
- Expressing my opinions and questioning others opinions in a polite and nuanced way that allows civilized discussion. It increases the chance of common progress rather than strengthening tribal bubbles.
Don’t attract too much attention to yourself and you can get way with a lot of shit.
Leave a better world behind than you entered (to the extent you are able to as an individual).
Define better for me
There are lots of different meanings. Pick one. Make people happy. Leave something that will help the next generation, whether it’s planting trees or a park bench or curing cancer. Be kind to people along the way to enable them to see the best in humanity. There are lots of ways to make things better. Just pick one and do it.
I’m not asking for general ideas, do you have a definition you ascribe to, or does it just change to suit the situation
Rather, why are you unable to define it for yourself? It’s not that hard. Helping things towards balance (like helping any angry, sad, or greedy person to be less so, etc., or trying to heal a physical or emotional wound as appropriate) is a fine start.
The cub scouts have a rule: leave the camp better than you found it
It’s a great rule to apply to everything in your life. Small improvements add up over time and benefit those who come after
My standard for “good” practise is: if everyone adapt said practice, then the world would be better off.
Even though the effort of a single person can be futile; if I cannot chance my behavior for a cause I believe in, how can I expect the rest of the world to do the same?
What are you most basic principles for life?
Spell check
Ugh.
Drink enough coffee to shit before leaving the house.
Im sure you’ve got some other principles you could share. Theres more to life than caffiene and deffication, surely.
Before enlightenment, caffeinate and defecate.
After enlightenment, caffeinate and defecate.
Always shit on company time
And use 1 ply with no bidet?
Savages.
Don’t be a dick.
Shut up, Wesley
Do what you think is right, but spend some time considering if it’s right or not first.
Recognizing when you’re not considering and just going by intuition or emotional response would probably already put you ahead of most of us.
Empathy seems to be necessary (but I’m not sure if sufficient) for logical moral consideration because you cannot justify your position if you purposefully ignore another’s, and considering someone else’s perspective without prejudice is empathy.
- don’t be an asshole
- everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
- act when you see something wrong
- when you are able to help do so
- in all other cases mind your own business
everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
Context is important here. Oftentimes someone is getting hurt, you just don’t know who or when. A very fine line on this bullet.
It’s worse than that. Situations where something causes no harm to literally anyone are few and far between. Even less often you have a full and clear picture of a situation. Usually it’s a choice between who gets hurt to what extent and based on what you know you just try to minimize the damage. You will get it wrong a lot.
Life is complicated and all we can do is to try our best and hope others will too.
If it makes me feel virtuous, I want to do it. If it makes me feel guilty, I don’t want to do it. ‘Right’ or ‘wrong’ seem to be objective morality-ly loaded terms, though.
How do you feel about the trolley problem?
Flip the switch
This is one of the biggest problems going on right now. That people don’t have a knowledge of their own morality, not in any tangible, processed way. People resort to following a person who they believe has the morality they seek, but their own decisions are actually based on a combo of feelings and whatever dogma they may have with no real analysis or improvement being done with any consistency. It would fix a hell of a lot of problems if your average person was breaking down the implications of their own morality and developing a defensible philosophical position. For most I observe that is farther than the average person is willing to parse. It seems that this has led many to base essentially their entire philosophy of right vs wrong (as far as they can actually explain it without just saying “God”) on a series of impactful sounding, but ultimately hollow, sound bites or snappy retorts that don’t have any actual substance.
I wholeheartedly agree, and as funny as this sounds, I just started writing a manifesto about this yesterday lmao.
I think the main issue is the way morality is framed in neoliberalism, many religions etc.—as something prescriptive. We follow laws not because of some internal moral principles, because we conform to authority and fear punishment. This isn’t rational but deeply instinctual, and it leads to immoral action. Similarly, I think tribalism is a consequence of instinctual action and probably one of the main causes of evil in the world. Racism, nationalism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. can all be explained in this framework. We need to educate people to recognize instinct and transcend it. A political system, however perfect, cannot be forced on people who aren’t ready for it.
