The Atheist Agora

Let me ask this @Simon  What is the moral dimension of the unintentional.

If I trip and fall or spill a drink, both unintentionally, what is moral or immoral about things like that?

Davis wrote:

Those are all morally neutral activities apart from intention

Are they?

If you have a question, ask it. All I can say that unintentional acts have no moral intention.

Unseen wrote:
Morality is all about intentionality.

I don’t know.  Morality is a vast and sprawling domain of interest.  But I see your point maybe: intentions and actions are what we have control over.

You can interact honestly, deceptively, or sinisterly.

Those social activities I mentioned all involve moral principles (of conversational e…[Read more]

Those are all morally neutral activities apart from intention

Are they?

You could see it like that, in a wider sense.  I was talking about interacting with people personally, or interacting with one’s group.

Uh huh.

Simon Paynton wrote:
You could see it like that, in a wider sense. I was talking about interacting with people personally, or interacting with one’s group.

Those are all morally neutral activities apart from intention. You can interact honestly, deceptively, or sinisterly.

Morality is all about intentionality.

You could see it like that, in a wider sense.  I was talking about interacting with people personally, or interacting with one’s group.

brushing one’s teeth, watching TV on one’s own

So, watching television, using up energy which, if in a city is powered by coal, contributing to climate change isn’t a concern? Watching a program that was sponsored by a company that engages in child slavery practices in Asia isn’t of concern? Watching television instead of volunteering doesn’t com…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
Simon could you give a few examples of behaviour that is moral behaviour, and a few example of behaviour that is something other than moral behaviour?

Moral behaviour: talking to someone (conversational ethics), buying something in a shop (reciprocity).

Non-moral behaviour: brushing one’s teeth, watching TV on one’s own.

I think…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
Indeed, with the entire Twentieth Century in particular as witness, no human being should be allowed to have the kind of power that results in the looting, suffering, and murder of millions. For more harrowing, hard, but necessary reading on this grim subject, I highly recommend the works of The Late Professor Rudolph Rummel found…

[Read more]

There is some “breaking news” about the betrayal of Anne Frank here. Not yet verified.

Unseen,

@Enco Was Mad King Ludwig II actually “mad”? He could have been eccentric, spoiled, even mentally ill in some form, but not all forms of mental illness amount to being “mad” (by which I mean crazy, bonkers, off his rocker, and nuts).

I’m not sure I trust a diagnosis from so early in the days of psychiatry.

The thing is, though, t…

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Simon could you give a few examples of behaviour that is moral behaviour, and a few example of behaviour that is something other than moral behaviour?

Davis wrote:
Huh?

Moral behaviour is a form of behaviour.

Unseen wrote:
Come to think of it, most of the great architecture has been made or sponsored by narcissists, despots, madmen, or psychopaths.

Apparently, European cathedrals were invented by a 12th century bishop who wanted a fitting tribute for his awesome personality.

Now that the people who were exploited to build these palaces are all long…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
So, morality varies over time. There is, then, no firm everlasting basis for time. It changes with perceptions. Seems to be a consequent of what you are saying.

I wouldn’t say so in this case.  If someone came along today, and acted like a cruel despot, it would still be seen as just as wrong.

Rightness and wrongness is not a…[Read more]

@jakelafort said:

If we only examine results without assessing intention then it is the same crime to have been bullied and tormented, finally fight back and unintentionally kill the bully with a left cross that causes an aneurysm as it is to hire a hitman to murder your business adversary.

This would seem to be a very reasonable position.  If…[Read more]

Come to think of it, most of the great architecture has been made or sponsored by narcissists, despots, madmen, or psychopaths. And that includes Frank Lloyd Wright, who left his wife under lurid circumstances.

We nice sane people have relatively little to show for ourselves, architecturally speaking. LOL

@Simon BTW, Schloss Neuschwanstein comes in behind the Taj Mahal as a contribution to world architecture, but he was known to be the cruelest of the Mogul emperors. When his beloved wife died, for whom he built the Taj, he basically turned to one of the daughters for nookie because the two looked so much alike and, as he also argued, “It is the…[Read more]

But moral behaviour

What is moral behaviour?

…as behaviour

Huh? Let me read that again.

But moral behaviour, as behaviour

Huh?