Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: December 11, 2024, 5:55 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war?
RE: Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war?
(August 15, 2022 at 6:05 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: However, if a person thinks that people shouldn't kill people, and if a society develops around this idealized form of organization - the reason that you don't kill someone who kills has nothing to do with whatever they did.  You....shouldn't....kill.  It's a simple rule.  It's not one we have to agree with to understand.  Do you understand?
"You. . . shouldn't. . . kill (people)," you mean. Again, we've established that you not only kill animals, but relish the act of doing it for fun. So harm and suffering in and of themselves are not the objection-- there's something special about people, ALL people, even the greatest pedophiliac murderer, that is sacrosanct to you. Why would that be? I'm saying that human life is NOT intrinsically valuable, and that to claim it is is either an emotional opiinion or a religious one-- in either case, irrational. All the talk about morality of execution-as-murder takes human exceptionalism as axiomatic-- but I do not accept that axiom.

The social contract can have a rational veneer: "If we do not agree that killing (people) is wrong, then ourselves or our children may be killed. And that would be counterproductive."

Sounds rational, but the truth is more like: "I'm a social animal with instincts for love, and the idea that someone I care about might be harmed is abhorrent. If one of my children were killed, it would be emotionally and psychologically devastating, something I know to be true because even imagining it is terrifying. Therefore, no matter what, I must support the idea that killing people is wrong." But there's a clear alternative-- killing GOOD people is wrong. Set about to making sure you and your children are good people, and you don't have to worry.

As I said before, if you don't give a shit about something, you don't worry too much about the morality of it. It's ALL emotional, and any rational argument is just spackled on after the fact. It's not rational turtles all the way down.
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war? - by bennyboy - August 15, 2022 at 6:24 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Maximizing Moral Virtue h311inac311 191 20230 December 17, 2022 at 10:36 pm
Last Post: Objectivist
  As a nonreligious person, where do you get your moral guidance? Gentle_Idiot 79 9322 November 26, 2022 at 10:27 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  On theism, why do humans have moral duties even if there are objective moral values? Pnerd 37 4614 May 24, 2022 at 11:49 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Can we trust our Moral Intuitions? vulcanlogician 72 7257 November 7, 2021 at 1:25 pm
Last Post: Alan V
  Any Moral Relativists in the House? vulcanlogician 72 7317 June 21, 2021 at 9:09 am
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  [Serious] Moral Obligations toward Possible Worlds Neo-Scholastic 93 8276 May 23, 2021 at 1:43 am
Last Post: Anomalocaris
  A Moral Reality Acrobat 29 4333 September 12, 2019 at 8:09 pm
Last Post: brewer
  In Defense of a Non-Natural Moral Order Acrobat 84 9693 August 30, 2019 at 3:02 pm
Last Post: LastPoet
  Moral Oughts Acrobat 109 11737 August 30, 2019 at 4:24 am
Last Post: Acrobat
  Is Moral Nihilism a Morality? vulcanlogician 140 15455 July 17, 2019 at 11:50 am
Last Post: DLJ



Users browsing this thread: 18 Guest(s)