- Killing should be frowned upon unless it is established that the person's death will be beneficial to everyone.
- To lie is a neutral concept to me. I believe that lying may not benefit those who receive the lies, but those who create the lies will also be burdened and punished in their minds for deceiving another person.
- The only situation that I can think of when stealing is morally appropriate is when someone steals from another who is exercising control or power over him/her using various resources.
- The paid use of another person's body for sexual satisfaction, or prostitution, is considered rape by me. I believe that no woman (or man) in his/her right mind would ever allow others to perform these actions onto them.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Darn those Socially-Ethical Fetters!
Ever since I first stepped into a science classroom, ethics have hindered me. I understand that some practices are deemed illegal to perform on humans, but whenever I think of those, I can only imagine what knowledge we could gain by not adhering to those ethics. I have dreamed up so many experiments, and yet, they go unperformed. For now, I shall have to submit to these ethics in order to gain the knowledge I need good career, but I believe, like Raskolnikov, that one day I shall be able to step over these boundaries for the betterment (or not) of the human race. As of now, what I wish to have as my morals and what morals I have been taught to follow are creating some cognitive dissonance. Oh how many times have I thought of just running away to a new world where I could do what I wish without being judged or made to feel guilty! Then, I could do what I please in peace. Although ethics allows me to choose what is right and wrong, I have many overlapping ideals and many ethical thoughts that are situation-based. Here are a few of my basic morals:
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One thing I found interesting, about your own ethics, was that you said that killing in intolerable, unless the death benefits everyone. With that in mind, has their been an ethically okay murder in history? because surely, even the most haten man, surely there were some who did not benefit from their death? I would argue Hitler's death as being the most ethically viable death in modern history, if not all of history. It was a suicide, and everyone wanted him dead anyway. All those who wanted him alive, only felt that way for selfish, power related reasons. I think Osama bin Laden's murder is still too early to tell, as we do not know yet exactly what the repurcussions will be. And then there is Jesus. Jesus, as all christians believe, died for the forgiveness of sins. The most ethical sort of death then is to be a martyr. But since not all believe Jesus's death as a martyrdom, what does that make Jesus? Or perhaps any so called martyrs? Are they to be called a martyr? Or a falsly accused innocent man? Is it then that there is no such thing as a wholly ethically viable killing, if not everyone can agree what it is?
ReplyDeletePart of the problem with ethics, as you have stated, is that everybody, consciously or otherwise, is out for their own benefit. Merely justifying death because it is "beneficial" is too callous, as it would be beneficial if all human beings were killed because the major damage our kind has on the entire planet. Is it ethical for the leader of a country to be assassinated if everyone in the country would benefit? I would think not, as we have witnessed the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
ReplyDeleteObviously everything is subjective, just as I would argue your supposed experiments are. While some experiments, such as the rearing of feral children, may seem harmless in the context of furthering knowledge, as humans we cannot predict how knowledge will be utilized and changed. "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge, the more grief" said Ecclesiastes. Raskolnikov himself champions Napolean, and would probably call Hitler extraordinary, but as evidenced, "extraordinary" men (they are always men) who defy nature are at nature's mercy in the end. Mengele thought his research would be beneficial, when really it was cruelty no one would volunteer to endure. When questioning the ethics, I think you must identify whether your feelings would remain if you were the building blocks rather than the builder. As much as we like to fantasize, no one is in fact extradordinary, "You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else," (Palahniuk) and so forth there should be nothing and no one that acts against nature.
Dan, you sound like a mad scientist. I think you would enjoy The Angle Maker by Stefan Brijs. It is similar to what you views are about the experiments. The man know what he is doing is wrong but he thinks it will better the human race. I don't, however, agree with you ideals of stealing and prostitution. You can read about how i feel about stealing in my blog, but i feel that there are some people out there who would willingly put themselves out there for others to "buy". I do, however, like you view on lying is a good view. I like the way that you go about sating your view and i think that you bring up a good argument about it.
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