Re: Ethics

Scott Badger (wbadger@psyberlink.net)
Mon, 6 Jul 1998 07:15:20 -0500

Daniel Fabulich <daniel.fabulich@yale.edu> wrote:

>On Sun, 5 Jul 1998, Scott Badger wrote:
>
>> I do completely agree with you that ethical standards are subjective and
>> fluidic (real word?).
>
>OK, I've got to butt in here. Philosophically speaking, you're making a
>rather lofty presumption which you have not at all defended. There are a
>large body of philosophers who claim that we can rationally determine what
>we ought to do, and thereby solve the problem of ethics. I find this
>position rather strong, since it seems to me that one cannot rationally
>disprove this, except possibly by showing how rationality cannot be used
>to make choices, an absurd claim.
>

Well, I said at the start that ethics was not my field. Thanks for butting in. So, I'm interested to find out . . . what *are* some of the objective and universally applicable ethical standards that have been rationally derived by philosophers?

best regards,

s.b.