RE: Moral Obligations toward Possible Worlds
May 11, 2021 at 1:23 pm
(This post was last modified: May 11, 2021 at 1:31 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
It could explain why we feel differently about two people who've committed the same bad thing based on their circumstances or dispositions, I think. We sometimes assert that children can't be counted on as having a specific and relevant intent to harm. We don't expect a person fleeing or fighting for their life to make stellar moral decisions.
I'd say that picking the best or most good thing is good intentions, but it's also a term of art. In a list of two exclusively bad things - the best or most good being referenced could be genocidal on the one hand, or purposeless cruelty on the other. I don't think this is an edge case. I think that the majority of human decisions on things of moral import - places where we have to sit down and work through our next step - are exclusively sub-optimal decision fields.
The only place that every moral decision has to have any good resolution, is in our imagination. The consequences of things, likewise, may not be so directly tied to our intentions for them. Insomuch as our intentions are at least in principle a demonstrable item - I think they play in pretty much any system.
I'd say that picking the best or most good thing is good intentions, but it's also a term of art. In a list of two exclusively bad things - the best or most good being referenced could be genocidal on the one hand, or purposeless cruelty on the other. I don't think this is an edge case. I think that the majority of human decisions on things of moral import - places where we have to sit down and work through our next step - are exclusively sub-optimal decision fields.
The only place that every moral decision has to have any good resolution, is in our imagination. The consequences of things, likewise, may not be so directly tied to our intentions for them. Insomuch as our intentions are at least in principle a demonstrable item - I think they play in pretty much any system.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
