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Degrees of Morality

Morals are self imposed ideals. If you can stand vast amounts of rubbish , littering will not be high on your moralistic scale. If it is then the opposite applies.

I cannot abide harming or causing harm to another person physically, mentally or financially, so my morals are high on that scale.
 
See, that's kind of what I was getting at. Since morals are defined by the culture which employs them, can't you say that for a given culture, something is either moral or immoral?

Or am I just blowing smoke?

Should I concede to the new guy?

Oh, the horror! :rolleyes:
 
I think what is considered moral and what is not should at least have some rational thought behind it. Rape is bad because people suffer, etc.

With that in mind, the position that all of these bad acts are equally immoral seems indefensible.

Your only argument lies in the fact we can never really pin down just how moral or immoral something is, and different cultures are likely to differ on some points. But that's not a strong enough argument. There appear to be vastly more similarities than differences.

Debating the opinions of certain cultures may lead them to change their minds, in a good way, too, like science changes its mind when more data comes in.
 
Coralius said:
See, that's kind of what I was getting at. Since morals are defined by the culture which employs them, can't you say that for a given culture, something is either moral or immoral?
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Why grant a culture's definition of whether x is moral or immoral, but not concede to that culture's determination of its relative morality? I can think of no culture that assumes all moral actions are equally good and all immoral actions equally bad. The closest I can bring to mind is the Christian "All sins are equal in the eyes of God," but that has never been taken to mean they were equal in the eyes of the culture as well.
 
Coralius said:
My lab partner at work posits that there are degrees of morality. Being the Devil's Advocate that I am, I'm disagreeing.

Care to help me out, or shoot me down? I'd love to see both sides of this argument presented.

Thanks in advance.

It may be true. :)
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It looks to me as if you and your friend are talking past each other. He is concentrating on the distinction between good and bad; you are talking about the distinction between right and wrong. Leaving aside the fact that there is no such word as righter or wronger, we have no reason to expect that the two distinctions will always coincide. Sometimes we have only a choice of evils.

Regards
 
Sure, why not degrees? Obviously there's a difference between stealing a package of cookies (when you can afford them) and murdering someone. Both are immoral actions, but one is clearly MORE immoral than the other.

Murder is what the Catholics term a "mortal" sin versus merely a "venial" sin. That distinction is based on the graveness of the matter, and it certainly applies to the morality of others, albeit without the "god"-based sins.



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The Bible of the Good and Moral Atheist
 
Dang, it looks like my position is becoming more and more untenable.

Ah well, it was worth a shot.
 
So, give him a slap, then say "In some cultures, that's considered a compliment".
 
The lab guy may be referring to the various levels of morality as defined by various researchers over the years. The lowest levels are for fear of punishment or for reward, the highest are because things are of general benefit (don't worry, it isn't some socialist altruist concept buttering-up in disguise.)
 
Coralius said:
Dang, it looks like my position is becoming more and more untenable.

Ah well, it was worth a shot.
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If it makes you feel any better, it sounds to me as though your position was the same as your lab partner's but worded differently. You seemed to be acknowledging that some choices are "more moral" than others, but simply stating that in any given circumstance there is a "right" and a "wrong" choice, depending on which is more moral. I'm sure there are instances where two choices are very close in terms or morality, but your position would seem to be that no two choices are exactly equal.

-Bri
 
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