I'm not going to defend slavery, because that would be absurd.
I am curious though, how is it that we can justify any moral behaviour over any other? Sure some behaviours feel good and others don't, some benefit others and others don't, but right and wrong are religious terms, and are best left to those who want to speak in archaisms.
Living in a godless universe does indeed lead to the conclusion of Dotsoyevsky
"If God does not exist, everything is permitted"
There is no absolute basis for morality, and to contest that is to deny that nature has not equipped morality in to itself universally.
There is no physical law stopping a bear from eating a rival males cubs, there is no physical law that has stopped slavery historically. I am not advocating slavery, as I am against it (unless of course it's between to consenting adults), but I don't see how my culturally bound ethical conditioning happens to represent some underlying universal principle that slavery is wrong, period.
I am curious though, how is it that we can justify any moral behaviour over any other? Sure some behaviours feel good and others don't, some benefit others and others don't, but right and wrong are religious terms, and are best left to those who want to speak in archaisms.
Living in a godless universe does indeed lead to the conclusion of Dotsoyevsky
"If God does not exist, everything is permitted"
There is no absolute basis for morality, and to contest that is to deny that nature has not equipped morality in to itself universally.
There is no physical law stopping a bear from eating a rival males cubs, there is no physical law that has stopped slavery historically. I am not advocating slavery, as I am against it (unless of course it's between to consenting adults), but I don't see how my culturally bound ethical conditioning happens to represent some underlying universal principle that slavery is wrong, period.
Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture room with the words,
"Behold Plato's man!"
