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Author Topic:   Moral Absolutism v Relativism (and laws)
nwr
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Posts: 6409
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 3 of 44 (362297)
11-06-2006 11:08 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Silent H
11-06-2006 1:27 PM


A link
I'll just include here a link to the old thread, and to a message where NJ lays down his view of moral relativism.
Message 296.

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 Message 1 by Silent H, posted 11-06-2006 1:27 PM Silent H has not replied

  
nwr
Member
Posts: 6409
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 26 of 44 (362862)
11-09-2006 10:38 AM
Reply to: Message 25 by Hyroglyphx
11-09-2006 10:16 AM


Re: Circular logic
The rules for mathematics are absolute.
Sorry to disagree. But Chiroptera is right. The rules of mathematics are arbitrary and capricious. (For Chiroptera's benefit, I should mention that I am a platonist in practice only, but certainly not in theory).
It is with absolute precision that mathematics operates.
That's largely correct, though not necessarily for applied mathematics. But that's where you miss the point. Mathematics can be absolutely precise only because it is arbitrary and capricious. If mathematics had to conform to some absolute reality, then the precision of mathematics would be limited by that reality.
What is true, is that mathematics is universal. That is to say, all mathematicians (well, almost all mathematicians) agree to use the same rules, arbitrary and capricious as they may be. But universal is not the same as absolute. Likewise, it may sometime happen that the world decides to adopt a universal set of moral standards. However, being universal would not make them absolute.
Let's see if I can give an example from physics. The temperature known as "absolute zero" is absolute. It is dictated by nature. However, the temperatures known as "Celsius zero" and "Fahrenheit zero" are arbitrary and capricious. They happen to be also universal among users of the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, but that universality does not make them absolute. They are relative to the measuring practices in use at the times these scales were invented.

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