We've touched on the idea of objective vs. subjective truths. Sure, we can pretty much all agree things like 2+2=4 to be an objective truth but what about ethics? Are there objective standards of right and wrong? Are the rules/laws we live by just a collection of subjective ideas created by people or a reflection of something objective (karma, God, etc.) As you answer this question try to provide an example and don't dismiss the idea of objectivity too quickly.
15 comments:
there are such things as objective truths in ethics. whether you believe it to be so or not, killing someone with no reason whatsoever is wrong, and that it an objective truth.
I think some things are objective truth and people should believe the objective truth but then again some objective truth is not always right some of them are wrong. We been living under laws and rules that are based on objective truth and some of them I think we can live with out.
Im a strong believer in karma. and i think we get our subjective ideas from the experancies we have had. We are always learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. Its like the trust you have for othere members of the world is constently being broken. For example before 9/11 you could bring certaine things on a plane with u. Now we have to go through long lines of security and we are always being qustioned. When it comes to objective truth, on the same note, by now we should know that everyone will not agree on the same thing. For example, many people find it wrong to murder, but we still have killers, crazy people who think its worth the risk to watch someone eals suffer. i belive that there is only subjective truths on what wrong and right. Many people say i should not have my son, that he should be takin away from beacause of my age, at the same time i have others who want to hold my hand through all of this. There will always be someone who belives different on whats right and wrong then you do. thats how life works.
I believe that the laws we live by are in fact a collection of ideas from members of society about what is right and wrong. However, I do not believe that men can make laws that reflect a figure such as God. I do not believe that there is such thing as objective truth when it comes to ethics. I believe this because there are always circumstances in which a person might have to bend and do something that they might not normally do because of their ethical beliefs.
I think that some ethics are objective.I believe that if there were no rules/laws that some people would still believe stealing and lying are wrong. I dont think anyone would say that it is ok to take from someone.
There could be something all people believe in like: only women give birth. All people believe this because thats how its always been and it couldn't be any other way. It would be impossible if it were otherwise. I myself believe that certain people decide to live by the law; the law is written by the people but when it comes to religious things such as The Ten Commandements othere people believe it was processed by God. I don't believe that there is a right or a wrong.
Right and wrong are judged by the personal opinions of a community of people or peoples personal veiws. I do not believe there is objective standards of right and wrong, but it is made by people and they gain their veiws from what they experience or what they believe in to set the standard, as in religion, karma, etc. I see rules and laws as a collection of ideas based around some religious factor. We have some laws that are based around religion as in murder and stealing, which is mentioned in the bible as not being "good". But we also have laws not based around objective truths such as seperation of church and state, because not all people believe in objective truths as a society we had to be flexible to this and factor in everyones opinion.
I am replying to GMSdalundstrom. i do not think that what you said can be justified. if there are no objective truths in ethics at all then you can say that it is right for one person to cheat on his wife but not for others. sometimes you do have to bend the origanl moral line but there is always going to be a certain ethis that just is. it can not be changed for certain people to be made right and be wrong for others.
Religious beliefs and things such as Karma are generally accepted as sets of objective truths by those who believe in them. Whether or not some choose to follow these objective truths would not make them any less true. Perhaps some might choose not to follow the idea of an objective truth such as: Stealing from another when you are not in need. Maybe they would receive some sort of "punishment" from a force like Karma.....like Earl believes on that TV show.
Annalovesbatman makes the most sense on her post. She makes a good point on subjective truths and provides a good example.
I am responding to Dustys second post. I have a question for you. If the man who cheated on his wife did it because he found out she had cheated on him, does it make it right or wrong that he did it? Does it make a difference if the man was "wronged" by his wife first? Or does the same moral line you are talking about apply? You cannot say that there are objective truths in ethics, because who is man to say what is right and wrong? If a man is in a relationship with a woman, and the woman says that it is ok for him to mess around with other women, is it still wrong? There is no objective truth in ethics, because everyone has their own idea of right and wrong.
i beleive there maybe a few ethical objective truths but they are hard to prove to be objective. i believe this is beause ethics are personal and everyone has different ethics. with this said how can you say that one thing is true to everyone when everyone has different ethical beleifs?
response to everyone,
im not going to critisize or disagree with anyone because like i said in my original post everyone has different ideas on ethics who am i to say your beleifs are wrong? maybe mine are?
john=D, maybe some people are just wrong? Is it wrong to steal food from a starving child? Is this objectively (or always)wrong? Or is this another subjective ethical choice?
Responding to Philosophy Guru... I don't think that anyone's beliefs are wrong unless it was an evil belief, But of Course it would be wrong to steal food from a starving child...ALWAYS...I also don't think that it's subjective because if it were to happen to any one while "that person" was starving it would be mean and in a evil way because your aware that the person you stole from is hungry. Such as Karma is a different subject because it is more subjective; I believe in karma too because I have had experiences with that..what goes around comes back around good or bad it'll hit you back.(If you steal food SOmething bad could happen to you so that you would regret it)
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