quote:
Evidently your definition of 'relativism' is that everyone affirms his or her own morality and is responsible for his or her own actions. In that case, I am a relativist, so is everyone else, and there is no other reasonable view.
Evidently your definition of 'absolute' is a virtue that is floating in the Plato galaxy, where we can see it with our moral telescopes and are powerless to deny its existence and universality. In that case, there are no absolutes and there is no other reasonable view.
Yes, that's exactly what we've been saying ... but we didn't need
to use all that verbiage.
quote:
We make these choices not on the authority of God or government, but because we recognize that certain virtues are ends in and of themselves.
What a load of [insert derrogatory indication of choice].
People do things. They do not sit and ponder the rights and
wrongs of their actions, they have formed over time a level
of acceptability for different types of actions.
Few people do things to be virtuos (not even religous people),
they do things because things need doing, and some people are
willing to trample over anyone else to get what they want.
Some people will lie, steal, kill, etc. they don't necesarily beleive
that they are wrong to do so, nor do they consider these actions
from a moral PoV (consciously).
Some people, whne undercharged in a shop, will walk out going
never-mind they should be more careful, while others will rush
back and point out the error, and still others will chuckle
and pat the extra money in their pocket.
But they don't think of the moral implications.