Morality is an artificial concept. I have come to this conclusion for many reasons- A) because of the vast differences between any two individual’s personal moralities, along with the hypocritical violation and self-exception of those moralities, how can one system claim to be superior to any other?, B) the fact that “moral” behavior appears to hold no advantage in the process of natural selection, C) the fact that all moral actions, even those of self-sacrifice, are inherently selfish, and finally, D) most moralities violate the Freedom Principle, as defined below.
Man stands above the rest of the animal kingdom because of his ability in complex reasoning and understanding of abstract concepts. This ability has led to something remarkable and unique, namely choices. I am not talking about basic choices such as choosing when to act upon instincts (hunger, waste disposal, etc), animals do these everyday in their struggle to survive. Rather than merely survive, humans can make world-altering decisions by weighing the consequences of each individual action with a measure of foresight. I believe this ability (namely, the freedom of choice) is our most basic right from which all other rights are deduced from and are subsidiary to.
I will extrapolate more on this issue when I get the chance (I left a LOT of stuff out), but as a simplified paraphrase of what I believe to be the most effective system of social ethics- one has the right to act in such a manner as pleases him/her, so long as said action does not interfere with another’s right of the same nature.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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I'm not sure how you're going to get from morality is an artificial concept (I'm not really sure what it means for a concept to be artificial but I digress) to articulating that we all have a particular moral right (the right to act as we want). This seems to be a contradiction, but maybe it's just some of the stuff that you acknowledged that you'd left out and will be adding in later.
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