It pays to have a wife who did a philosophy major. One get a wonderful insight into problems that trouble almost everyone. It pays to have somewhat empirical knowledge about difficult to grasp things like ethics, fidelity, God, mind, matter, self and aesthetics (there are more, and I can't remember them right now :) ). These are some of the favorite subjects that we've talked over all through nights, boozing away like a couple of fish reared on firewhisky.
Those doubting thomases out there, take my word for it. There is absolutely no way one can actually ever think these topics out. There'll always something more to be said about them, and when you're all thunk out on Friday night, well there's more left over for Saturday. And many many weekends to follow.
Here I'll be analysing some insights that I've got into some of these topics.
Tonight... Ethics:
I and Tum always bicker about this one topic. I admit, no assert, that I'm not a guy driven by ethics. I basically do what's right because it's the easiest thing to do. I've had many a lengthy discussions about this. In the beginning there were the basics: good, bad, evil, right, wrong, intentions, consequence, the whole works. She's very good at this. She wanted me to read some books as well, but I don't argue very well with books :).
I'm going to be mixing some of these things here, so kindly adjust ;). There was Socrates who said: "He who knows right cannot do wrong." I'm baffled at this, but apparently the keyword here is knows. It takes the question of what is right and wrong out of the hands of the person(s) concerned and puts it into society. But then, how do you decide that society is right (it just as often isn't, look at our government)? Or maybe into the realm of the 10 commandments (those are pretty straightforward). But then some other religions aren't so "right", are they? How do you know yours is?
I'm going to differ. I've always tread this path: There's the law and there's the Law. The law can be bent. Its preferable not to do so, since there's that idiot called consequence around the corner, and you have to run from it... but there it is. The Law cannot be bent, or broken. You cannot commit murder... there's no bending that Law... But maybe I'm being too stratospheric in my thoughts. Ethics apply to everyday thing:
Do I throw the cigarette on the ground? Only when I'm in India.
Do I follow traffic rules? Most of the time (unless very inconvenient).
Do I do a good job in the work I do? Always (I believe so).
Do I steal? I've done some hacking in my earlier days, cracked ISP accounts, and this was before cyberlaws prevented it in India. It was the idiot who owned the account ;) who didn't change passwords long enough, didn't have decent AV protection :-s
I'm just trying to prove that I don't think ethics carry much weight (and I'm very likely wrong here). I know some people who are highly ethical in some things in life and very unethical in others. The law and the Law. I don't know a single completely ethical person. I don't think such a thing exists.
My explanation is simple. Pure ethics is self-contradictory, or at the very least impractical. It can offer two opposing paths to the same problem, which can't both be ethical.
The intention of this discourse is this: When you can't decide which way to go, ethics is a good compass, but it doesn't always point N. You have to know inside yourself what you want to do. You should know.
Tomorrow... Did hemlock make Socrates famous?
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