What is goodness?
July 15, 2020 at 6:17 pm
(This post was last modified: July 15, 2020 at 6:20 pm by Porcupine.
Edit Reason: Clarity
)
What is goodness?
I don't mean I want the dictionary definition. I mean in the metaethical sense. What, to you, is goodness about? When we say that something is ethically good what do we mean? And is it objective or subjective? Relative or absolute? Are there moral facts or aren't there moral facts? Etc.
To quote from the Wikipedia article of metaethics without linking it as I'm not allowed to link anything yet:
I have bolded the question that is to be addressed on this thread.
I have no idea what goodness is myself. I used to think it was "whatever the universe/God/nature willed/wanted which is basically whatever deterministically and fatalistically necessarily happens" but now I have no idea because I'm going through a existential crisis regarding my theology and I don't know if I'm an atheist or an agnostic or what I am anymore.
EDIT: I'm starting to think I'm rather nihilistic right now and I would perhaps subscribe to error theory. But I'm not so sure. Perhaps pantheism isn't not so meaningless after all. I'm unsure. Hence the crisis.
But what do you think?
I don't mean I want the dictionary definition. I mean in the metaethical sense. What, to you, is goodness about? When we say that something is ethically good what do we mean? And is it objective or subjective? Relative or absolute? Are there moral facts or aren't there moral facts? Etc.
To quote from the Wikipedia article of metaethics without linking it as I'm not allowed to link anything yet:
Wikipedia article on Meta-Ethics Wrote:While normative ethics addresses such questions as "What should I do?", evaluating specific practices and principles of action, meta-ethics addresses questions such as "What is goodness?" and "How can we tell what is good from what is bad?",
I have bolded the question that is to be addressed on this thread.
I have no idea what goodness is myself. I used to think it was "whatever the universe/God/nature willed/wanted which is basically whatever deterministically and fatalistically necessarily happens" but now I have no idea because I'm going through a existential crisis regarding my theology and I don't know if I'm an atheist or an agnostic or what I am anymore.
EDIT: I'm starting to think I'm rather nihilistic right now and I would perhaps subscribe to error theory. But I'm not so sure. Perhaps pantheism isn't not so meaningless after all. I'm unsure. Hence the crisis.
But what do you think?
"Zen … does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes." - Alan Watts
