Subjective Morality?

Started by StickyWicket, 21-05-2012

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StickyWicket

When you, as someone from western culture, look at places such as the middle east or China and how they view morality do you think sometimes, "There's no way that that could be considered acceptable,"?


The way I see it, every civilization has it's own subjective morality. Wither those views are contracted based on regional history, or religion, they are there because people truly think that their views are correct. There is no right or wrong, because what we see as right or wrong is dependent on how we were raised, what environment and time. So, I believe there is no such thing as objective morality unless, of course, there is some sort of deity that decides what is right and wrong.


If a man in America kills a cow to consume its flesh, and a man in India kills a cat to consume its flesh, who is the one doing something wrong? From the view of the man in India, the American is doing something wrong. But, this is because in India they have a different view on morality. The man in India views the cow as a holy entity, because the environment he was raised in was shaped from Hinduism. The man from India sees the American eating something special to him. On the other hand, the American man sees that the man from India is doing something wrong. This is because in America, cats are traditionally pets that are supposed to be cared for, and loved. The man from America sees the man from India eating something special to him.


However, a third party can see that the two actions are equal. A cat and a cow are both edible, domesticated animals that both felt the same pain as they died. But, then again, another third party could say that the death of all animals is wrong. The list of situations goes on and on. And, when you think about it, every little thing you do throughout your life could be viewed as wrong if the person truly believed so.


What do you think this means for us? Does that mean there is no such thing as objective morality? If morality can only exist in the mind of the observer is the observer is always biased?

Madcombat

This is a intresting thread, even more so in difficulty to talk about.

My outlook on what I view as bad/good will always no matter what get viewed by bad/good by others.  Its the same thing here and it all depends in the end on how you was raised. Heres a good one:
I saw a van full of children on youtube in afgan get blown up by a apache, do you think it was the right thing to do?  Even if a threat may had resided in it?  Alot of people would say its justified by the threat, but I'd disagree simply because personally I wouldnt have even the guts the hit the switch.  Not to mention that is a very cold thing to do, hell I'd even disobey orders unless it directly was a threat to myself.  So heres a question, what about you?
Heres another one that has gotten me thinking for some time, what about pets in general?  Now, we know now after so many hundred years its wrong to have slavery though it still excists in other countrys but what about pets?  Dogs, cats, mice all of those cool species?  Is it right to actually enslave them because really if you think about it, although your looking after said pet and feeding said pet, your actually enslaving it to a life that has to remain by your side.  So is that even right in itself?
Everyone has diffrent morals and views on all diffrent topics and its even impossible to determine what is a crime and if a punishment is justified, thats just how far morals can go.

Lucidius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mores

high-school grade sociology is p. deep....not
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