The Thirteeth Floor

[bennyboy]

The thing is, as per my beliefs, morality is subjective. So what may appear "more moral" to you might not fit with someone else's idea of morality at all.

In society we work and determine what is moral and ethical through a consensus of all of our individual moralities. Thus in a society where the notion exists of women being property, abusing them will be seen as moral.

Ethics isn't the science of doing everything perfectly, imo. It's the attempt to understand the greater good and to act on it, in particular when doing so doesn't seem to give any advantage to oneself. You can be wrong, or even act in a way that maximally harms others without knowing it-- but the attempt to understand the greater good and to act on it is still there.

Let's examine the issue of women's liberation vs. population loss. It is a fact that in countries where women commonly attend and finish university, the population goes into decline. If the country's security is at threat, or its economy harmed by having a too-old population, then that's a problem. However, telling women that they have to be breeders is a problem, as well. I would say a woman who sacrifices her education in order to raise children to productive adulthood is a very ethical person. So is a woman who thinks that the world is cruel and that having children is therefore wrong. But a person who thinks she SHOULD have children but says, "Fuck you all, I don't care about my country" is acting unethically, as is the woman who really believes there's nothing good to be found in the world but has children anyway.

So long story short-- I think ethics is more about the intent than the act.