Saturday, June 25, 2005

Why Philosophy Sucks...

Because in reply to someone I actually wrote this:

Panoptical illusions (or delusions)
I'm also just thinking that most "ethics" are developed in an odd way – they reflect the recognition that "someone is watching." Plato's unexamined life, for instance, is just turning a demonstrable social fact inward. I think all ethics must evolve similarly. I know that a version of this is the basis for whatever ethics I have. That is, when I observe others I come to the shocking recognition that they have desires and beliefs that are as firmly held as mine. This means I must give them some credence. This also explains why psychopaths are generally portrayed as ethic-less, moral-less monsters (when in fact they do have their own ethics, aesthetics, and quite normal, in some respects, lives). The answer to that person who cannot see that the "other'" is in some way related is to stigmatize, even demonize them.

Problems occur, as suggested by the psychopath, when competing ethics cannot be reconciled in any way. At that point ethics tend to be cast aside for pointy sticks of varying technological effectiveness.


Then I went back to obsessively polishing my pistol and finishing that whiskey.

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