Thursday, February 12, 2009

Only Questions

Observe with me the following statement:
"I am disinterested in making moral judgements."

Is there an implicit moral judgement in this statement? (It seems to me that there might be one... it seems to imply that passing moral judgements is morally reprehensible).

Suppose I were to say the following, to try and avoid making a moral judgement, and to simply explain why I do not want to make them:
"I am disinterested in making moral judgements because...
1) I don't know anything
2) It is a waste of time (because I don't know anything, because it generally changes nothing)
3) It can be damaging to others (those being judged) and to myself (the one judging)."

Then would there still be an implicit moral judgment in saying this?

Is such a line of reasoning exactly what 'morality' involves? I'm not really a big fan of black and white words like 'good,' 'evil,' or 'moral' these days, but if I were to use them, it is exactly this sort of thing that I mean... i.e. Something is 'good' when it is healthy, useful, life-affirming, and perhaps even more impossible terms like 'as it should be', 'true', 'not bent' (as in, following Plato/Aristotle/Christian-y theology, 'evil' is bent, deformed, misplaced goodness).

But then, does this reduce 'good' to merely a matter of utility? That just reminds me of what Nietzsche says about utilitarianism. (Specifically, his point that life isn't will to self-preservation, it's will to power -- and self-preservation is one aspect of that, but sometimes will to power contradicts self-preservation, like when warriors put their lives on the line for glory). Similarly, utility seems like a subset of good, but isn't good bigger than that? If so, and how, I have no idea. It seems like doing what is 'good' or 'right' sometimes might not correspond with what is 'useful' but is that just because our understanding of 'useful' is 'not as deep as it should be?

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A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
-Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes, as written by Bill Watterson)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

we know not to murder after seeing a murder on the screen, but do we know not to love when we see two fulfilled?

nobody's left, and it's odd because the more you deny it, the funnier it gets.

(evil can be funny. righteouseness is a barrel of laught too. come on we all know! it's a new century, no sarcasm, kids.

they wrote the books to share with you what they assumed could be. they made the films to explore what you didn't get to do at work today. and they wrote the songs to fill in the gaps between being some place, and getting there.)

[the white stripes]