[quote]CBear84 wrote:
karlrichii wrote:
CBear84 wrote:
karlrichii wrote:
can you define “good” apart from an outside governing standard?
the internal governing standard. or is there a more specific question you would like answered?
first off; thanks for the reply and yes this leads to a more specific question; what happens when two peoples internal governing standards are in opposition? ex: Let’s say I like the idea of sleeping with my buddy’s wife; my buddy is not too keen on that idea and thus we have a conflict of desires.
without an objective standard of good to adhere to all we have is opinion and preference and his “opinion” that I shouldn’t sleep with his wife is not enough to deter the good that I see coming from me sleeping with her.
Take that concept and multiply the people involved by 3 billion and you get the current state of the world. to sum it up, when the chips are down i dont think that man’s internal governing will lead to him doing the “right” thing at the expense of is happiness except in extremely rare cases.
i see what you’re trying to do. the key point of my first statement was, once (if) people realize that their actions have multitudes of consequences outside of themselves
ie, sure, you want to sleep with his wife. but, understand that you would be ruining a friendship, and he may respond with bodily harm, up to and including murder. [/quote]
thats a good point but the first consequence I can live with and the second leads me to rationalize killing my buddy first to protect myself and on top of that give me easy access to his wife.
Ok, I’ll admit this scenario sounds ludicrous however I get the impression that you’re saying that if people could just see how their actions hurt others they would rethink them due to their internal governing standard convicting them, however i dont think its that people dont see their affects, I think they just dont care.
take the guy whos got a wife and kid at home whos screwing everything in town, do you think he isnt aware of the potential damage to his family if he gets caught? he knows, he just doesnt care because what he wants at that moment is more important than his wife, kids and their future.