#morality
Outstanding statements from early atheist Matthias Knutzen:
"First, there is neither a God nor a devil; secondly, magistrates are not to be valued, churches are to be despised, and priests rejected; thirdly, instead of magistrates and priests, we have learning and reason, which, joined with conscience, teach us to live honestly, to hurt no man, and to give every one his due; fourthly, matrimony does not differ from fornication; fifthly, there is but one life, which is this, after which there are neither rewards nor punishments; the holy Scripture is inconsistent with itself."
-Micrcelii syntagma historic ecclesiasticce [1699]
A quotation from Dyson, Freeman
A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.
Freeman Dyson (1923-2020) English-American theoretical physicist, mathematician, futurist
Disturbing the Universe, ch. 4 (1979)
#quotation #quote #cause #ends-and-means #morality
Sourcing and notes: https://wist.info/dyson-freeman/56123/
I am not sure what to make of this.
More “sexually restricted” people tend to shun casual sex and instead invest heavily in long-term relationships and parenting children. In contrast, more “sexually unrestricted” people tend to pursue a series of different sexual partners and are often slower to settle down. The crux of this argument is that, for sexually restricted people, other people’s sexual freedoms represent threats. Other women’s sexual openness can destroy these women’s lives and livelihoods by breaking up the relationships they depend on. So sexually restricted women benefit from impeding other people’s sexual freedoms. Likewise, sexually restricted men tend to invest a lot in their children, so they benefit from prohibiting people’s sexual freedoms to preclude the high fitness costs of being cuckolded.
No one would argue this is a conscious phenomenon. Rather, people’s strategic interests shape their attitudes in nonconscious but self-benefiting ways – a common finding in political science and evolutionary social science alike.
This view predicts that if sexually restricted people associate something with sexual freedoms, they should oppose it. Indeed, researchers have found that sexually restricted people oppose not only abortion and birth control, but also marriage equality, because they perceive homosexuality as associated with sexual promiscuity, and recreational drugs, presumably because they associate drugs like marijuana and MDMA with casual sex. We suspect this list...
Here I will stop as I think stating you suspect your case is stronger is definitely close to committing some sort of fallacy. Not sure if the main argument is profound or stupid, but I commend them for trying to answer the question as to why some people care about things which apparently don't affect them in the slightest. I'm instinctively drawn to the notion that it might be because they unconsciously perceive it actually as having a direct affect on them after all, rather than thinking there is some innate wrongness to certain actions.
It’s common to hear religious, political and other ideologically driven explanations – for example, about the sanctity of life. If such beliefs were really driving anti-abortion attitudes, though, then people who oppose abortion might not support the death penalty (many do), and they would support social safety net measures that could save newborns’ lives (many don’t).
I dunno. I have very mixed feelings here, please discuss.
[Arguments] seem unable to influence the masses in the direction of what is noble and good. For the masses naturally obey fear, not shame, and abstain from shameful acts because of the punishments associated with them, not because they are disgraceful.
[τοὺς δὲ πολλοὺς ἀδυνατεῖν πρὸς καλοκαγαθίαν προτρέψασθαι: οὐ γὰρ πεφύκασιν αἰδοῖ πειθαρχεῖν ἀλλὰ φόβῳ, οὐδ᾽ ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν φαύλων διὰ τὸ αἰσχρὸν ἀλλὰ διὰ τὰς τιμωρίας]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 10, ch. 9 (10.9.3-4) / 1179b.10ff (c. 325 BC) [tr. Crisp (2000)]
#quote #quotation #argument #disgrace #encouragement #fear #honor #morality #persuasion #philosophy #punishment #reason #shame #theory #virtue
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/aristotle/5781/
A quotation by Abraham, Daniel
“There’s a right thing to do,” Holden said.
“You don’t have a right thing, friend,” Miller said. “You’ve got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.”
Daniel Abraham (b. 1969) American writer [pseud. James S. A. Corey (with Ty Franck), M. L. N. Hanover]
Leviathan Wakes, ch. 36 (2011) [with Ty Franck]
#quote #quotation #action #choices #lesser-evil #morality #optimum #rectitude #virtue
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/abraham-daniel/53111/
From GI Rights Hotline:
Conscientious Objection Fact Sheet
After you read this fact sheet, please call the Hotline (877-447-4487) to talk over your options with a counselor.
Conscientious Objection Discharge
Everyone has a conscience. Few people wrestle with their conscience as much as members of the #military, especially those in #combat. Counselors with the GI Rights Hotline talk with military personnel every day who are questioning the #morality of the orders they have received or jobs they are expected to perform.If you are one of those people, you came to the right place. You should know that you are not alone. In fact, every year hundreds of military personnel apply for #ConscientiousObjector status. #ConscientiousObjectors have been with us as long as there have been wars.
Click here to see the fact sheet: https://girightshotline.org/en/military-knowledge-base/topic/conscientious-objection-discharge
Please share with anyone you know in the US military!
We Bleed the Same (currently on display in the ANU's Research School of Social Sciences building) write-up via ABC
"People say we were stolen. I don't like that word, I'm not an object. I'm a human being who was kidnapped from my family, thanks to a racist government policy" i like that. euphemism dropped.
and featuring the Hills Hoist salute
#art #stories #racism #oz #immigration #asylum #always-was #always-will-be #science #sense #morality
Countering Whataboutism and Misdirection on Aggressor Russia's Unprovoked Invasion of Sovereign Ukraine
I generally avoid giving disinformational propaganda any platform at all. Others ... don't always see that way, and I often find this frustrating and distracting. The goal of such propaganda is to weaken focus, engender confusion, and derail conversations. And it frequently succeeds in doing just this.
The Aggressor-Apologists' Arguments
A recent discussion provides a counterexample, in which the propaganda talking points are demolished one by one, revealing them for the void apologia they are. I'm rephrasing slightly here, with the statements as third--level headings:
1. I deliberately ignore the history here because it is not the salient information.
Rather than focus on the present conflcit, aggression, and violation of all international norms, standards, and treaties, this attack attempts to relitigate history. History isn't being litigated, the present is. Moreover, demanding that all be dictated terms by dead men of some past age ... with all the questions over which men and which age (and yes, it's virtually always men) ... only begs the question (in the true sense of that fallacy) of which past authorities should be considered.
2. I deliberately ignore that the biggest murderers of humanity because that is not what I am talking about here.
Again, the is a naked attempt to distract from the present and appeal to the past. A past, for what it's worth, which includes the overtly genocidal actions of the Soviet era to whose greatness Putin has been appealing over past days, weeks, months, and years, in which tens of millions were killed, starved, and/or imprisoned and enslaved.
Yes, there are other examples of genocides from other parties, including states of the West. I've mentioned several of those within recent months myself, here. Those genocides are acknowledged. Those are not the topic under discussion.
3. I ignore the fact that US clearly pushed this conflict because that is a lie. We know who made the decision to invade Ukraine, after many months of preparation.
This one addresses straight up falsehood, dismisses it, and points to the overt hypocrisy and bald-faced nature of the lie.
4. Ukrainians are not using themselves as a shield. This is the most absurd and wicked “blame the victim” accusation I have ever heard, as missiles and bombs rein down upon innocent people.
The genius of this response is that it makes clear that shields, as with missile defences, are reactive responses to acts of aggression and would not be relevant at all absent that aggression.
Keep these in mind should you see or encounter these, or similar arguments
No, you're not going to change the mind of a paid propaganda agent or indoctrinated useful idiot. But you will greatly blunt the effectiveness of their message.
Keep in mind too that propaganda relies heavily on the Big Lie. It's statements or assertions absurd on their face, repeated endlessly. This means that the arguments change and adapt relatively slowly, and are used in mass. Being able to rebut or pre-but the arguments greatly reduces their effectivenss, and those living in regimes of law, information, and media where we are able to do so with minimal risk or consequence for speaking truth to power should and are morally obligated to do so.
h/t @tom grzyb
#Ukraine #Russia #Propaganda #Counterarguments #Whataboutism #Misdirection #Responses #Sophistry #SophisticalRefutations #TruthToPower #VladimirPutin #AggressorRussia #MoralObligation #Morality
A quotation by Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1937)
#quote #quotation #avarice #economics #greed #morality #policy #power #prosperity #self-interest
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/5373/
I was reading someone's posts on here (whom I shall not name publicly), and I was frankly shocked when they quoted #JohnStuartMill while trying to present their absurd opinion as if it gave them ethical support.
If you believe in that brand of "ethics", you're a monster.
Neil Young - Heart of Gold and sense of citizenship too!
I'd caught only the headline but not details, just that Neil Young has chosen to have his music depart from Spotify. Why?
Here's the story. Yes, Heart of Gold. Bravo, Neil! 🏅
Neil Young Pulls Music from Spotify, Blasts It as the ‘Home of Life-Threatening’ Covid Lies
#TrumpVirus #Spotify #Morality#NeilYoung #Conscience #mindfulness #RantingRogan #MakeAmericaSaneAgain #Rogan #CovIdiots
True character arises from a deeper well than religion. It is the internalization of moral principles of a society, augmented by those tenets personally chosen by the individual, strong enough to endure through trials of solitude and adversity. The principles are fitted together into what we call integrity, literally the integrated self, wherein personal decisions feel good and true. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.
E. O. Wilson (1929-2021) American biologist, naturalist, writer [Edward Osborne Wilson]
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, ch. 11 “Ethics and Religion” (1998)
#quote #quotation #character #integrity #morality #piety #religion
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/wilson-e-o/50837/
Gunfighter Nation Meets Haitian Migrants
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/27/gunfighter-nation-meets-haitian-migrants/
'Our response can no longer remain confined to the #fear of #negative #cultural #representation and #denial. Every time #migrants and #refugees are under attack, #humanrights are under #attack. Every time #human #rights are under attack, so is our #morality as a #nation, our #humanity.'
#gunfighter #nation #haitian #migrants #us #delrio #texas #border #patrol #RichardSlotkin #humanitarian #crisis #asylum
A quotation by Wollstonecraft, Mary
It may be confidently asserted that no man chooses evil, because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) English social philosopher, feminist, writer
A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)
#quotation #quote #choice #evil #good #happiness #meme #morality #perspective
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/wollstonecraft-mary/48683/
Lysander Spooner ~ There is No Law Above Natural Law
'In #1882, Lysander Spooner wrote #NaturalLaw; or The #Science of Natural #Justice. In it he explained why there is only one #UniversalLaw that governs our #relationships. Natural Law stands above all others.
Natural Law was not created by men and women and it cannot be altered, denied or evaded by any human being, claimed authority or State. It defines the nature of our interactions and even how we judge our own character.
As Natural Law is a phenomena that exists in nature it can be studied like any other. Understanding Natural Law is, as Spooner wrote, the science of natural justice.
How do we live in peace? What rules determine how we maintain peace between each other? It is “self evident” that we can and do live peacefully but do we only do so because some higher “authority” will punish us if we don’t. Or do we all innately understand the unwritten Law that binds us within our corner of #society?
Is there a #common set of #principles which we all understand, regardless of the jurisdiction we live in? Is there a Universal Law which establishes the #boundaries of our #behaviour, enabling us to live in #peace and #harmony?
Of course there is, if there were not #humanity would not have #survived. This is Natural Law and Spooner described it.'
#lysanderspooner #natural #law #universal #truth #knowledge #understanding #rights #morality #ethics