Morality and human dignity..?

Question

I'm a liberal with very loose ideas of morality... I value self-conviction and self-expression... but the general idea of morals, I believe, is rooted in antiquated set of beliefs with standards set by individuals living in different conditions than any one of us may have been exposed to now.

I guess the question I am posing, is, do you feel that re-evaluating our morals as a whole will lead to a deeper sense of community and respect for one another... or do you fell that deconstructing our morals could have counterprodutive consequences, leaving us more indifferent to one other's individual plights?

Answer 1

The trend today, and perhaps always, is to try to shrug off responsibility for our actions. There are ever more ways we say "I'm not accountable". We now call overindulgence in alcohol a disease, for example, like cancer, something you have no control over. Everything is now a matter of opinion, "that's HIS reality".



It's a crock. Things are what they are and by dis-acknowledging then, we do nothing to actually diminish them or their effect on us.



Morality is nothing more or less than the physics of how behaviors affect our emotions, how we feel. Rejecting a friend hurts. Betrayal is a disgusting thing. And so on. We can deny those things all we want with trendy pseudo philosophies that excuse us, but the effects are just as real. Hence you see people walking around with lividly bruised souls and no idea of it. No idea what causes their pain.



Morality and dignity are as real as concrete. Someone, and I'm sorry I don't remember who, said "we don't break laws - we break ourselves against the law".



Right.

Answer 2

I think the biggest problem is using the word "re-evaluate", since contained within it is the word "value". I don't think there are two people anywhere in the universe who will place the same value on every moral issue. In fact, it seems to me that the best way to consider morals is to look at them completely without assigning value, either good or bad, to them. Then you consider the consequences of the behavior and determine if it has functional or dysfunctional results and use this to assign value.



I don't know if you've ever watched the National Geographic Channel show "Taboo", but it covers different moral values from different cultures all over the world. Many of the things practiced would automatically be assigned the value "bad" by most of this society, even though the end results are actually functional for that society. I don't know that the show leads to a deeper sense of community, but I think it would definitely lead to a greater understanding and perhaps acceptance of things that we would not consider moral in our society.

Answer 3

I look at those antiquated values in societies as them learning from the past what allowed a society to stay and grow strong and last. .Apparently too loose a standard causes a culture or society to collapse because there is no resistance to stop and define ones man's defining of abuse or pleasure. That is still the debated here at times. But back then it was more necessary. Life was harsher and it took time for man to live and get food, and build homes, and share communal responsibilities in ancient times.



The fundamental nature of man is still as you expressed to be liberated. But there was a danger the ancients realized where too much freedom of the populace to indulge in liberal behavior, especially secular, was a reflection of the whole society as to how they handled all their affairs. In politics, in social concerns. A nation would become blind with no values or sense of direction or purpose. And ultimately they would lose the significance of their own meaning. because they were consumed with what pleased them. And anything goes.



I don't think that is what you are saying here. But ancient man understood the price of not paying attention to individual behavior. It could cost the lives of good people. Especially the ones they loved.



Your question is something to think about and I hope I have not written too much.

Answer 4

Examine the empirical evidence. Morality has been deconstructed and realigned throughout the latter half of this century and indeed many times throughout history and the resulting loss of appreciation for the value of human life and the chaotic degradation of the family structure has been disastrous. Both the spread of AIDS and the many criminal acts perpetrated today can be traced to a "re - evaluated" sense of morality with its focus on self - fulfillment and personal freedom without any thought of the effect of ones actions on others.

Answer 5

Well, I propose that the result will depend largely on the subject in which morals are re-evaluated or de-constructed. For the most part, an individual in a group will have a "subjective" set of morals that is catered to types of events within their experience. For instance, a New York businessman will have little moral intuition on the trading habits among African tribes; he has no basis for moral judgment rooted in personal experience. So, for someone who already has a deeper sense of community and respect for one another will likely not be improved in this respect by a general re-evaluation of morals. Likewise, those who do not respect one another will likely improve their sense of community if they were to "correctly" re-evaluate their morals. I use a somewhat Marxist idea here; that we are all individually moving towards Geist, or a "perfection in humanity", and reason leads us on this path. As such, as long as you use reason to re-evaluate your morals, you "correctly" re-evaluate them toward respect of one another (assuming this is a necessary, rational step in morality).



For the most part, I would say that people direly need to imrpove their sense of community. It seems that people refuse to awknowledge basic facts; we are ALL human beings, we NEED to make sure the human race can sustain life on earth, and we should promote the further growth and development of culture in all its forms.

Answer 6

The main problem with our world today is that those so-called "antiquated" moral standards are being discarded to allow self-gratification & promiscuity. The main thing for you to get over (grow out of) is what you stated in your 1st sentence -- you're a liberal w/ loose morals.

Answer 7

You call u'r self a liberal and yet u are talking about moral values. I fail to get u???

U either be liberated by the moral values or u r tied down with it. It is for u to take.But take 100% or 0 % don't go half way thru and then be undecided upon. It will confuse u and frustrate u too. Its either black or white no grey ares in morality. My opinion.

And more over I don't chose to be morally good to preach to others. It's my life style and it suits me perfectly well.

I am Happy. By the way this directed my life's direction.

Answer 8

morals are so subjective as to be meaningless. Re-evaluating them will not change human nature.