RE: “Normative” ethical theories
September 7, 2025 at 10:33 am
(This post was last modified: September 7, 2025 at 10:47 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Retribution and anti-retribution being an issue of desert and not nature I'd have to recommend shelly kagan. The Geometry of Desert, specifically.
I'm an over praise under punish guy, because I believe it to be more coercive than the other combinations. That's my pragmatic theory of what to do after a moral question has been answered, rightly or wrongly, in any system. Mind, that's what I would do facing outward, to other people. Myself, under praise over punish. Externally permissive internally restrictive.
This arrangement ought to be familiar to lapsed and cultural catholics. We call it the shame wizard in this house. To wit - "Assume positive intent on the part of everyone else you degenerate fuck." Sounds trite and funny when I put it that way, but I'm underselling it in my own experience. Failing at that is the single most consequential thing I've ever done in my life or in anyone else's, and the outcomes were as bad as they get for everyone involved...and worse for the other guys than they were for me....though it came pretty damned close to the same outcome for us both. The trifecta. Long story short I pulled a trigger I shouldn't have, morally speaking and according to me. I eventually tried to do the same to myself, and failed by pure chance - dud round. That rippled throughout my life every day up to today. Ruined marriage, absentee parent, abandoned friendships, a loss of fundamental purpose and confidence, addiction issues, financial hardship.
Pragmatically speaking, avoid that. Never do your worst..whatever that may be and however you have it, and if you do... back off, don't double down.
I'm an over praise under punish guy, because I believe it to be more coercive than the other combinations. That's my pragmatic theory of what to do after a moral question has been answered, rightly or wrongly, in any system. Mind, that's what I would do facing outward, to other people. Myself, under praise over punish. Externally permissive internally restrictive.
This arrangement ought to be familiar to lapsed and cultural catholics. We call it the shame wizard in this house. To wit - "Assume positive intent on the part of everyone else you degenerate fuck." Sounds trite and funny when I put it that way, but I'm underselling it in my own experience. Failing at that is the single most consequential thing I've ever done in my life or in anyone else's, and the outcomes were as bad as they get for everyone involved...and worse for the other guys than they were for me....though it came pretty damned close to the same outcome for us both. The trifecta. Long story short I pulled a trigger I shouldn't have, morally speaking and according to me. I eventually tried to do the same to myself, and failed by pure chance - dud round. That rippled throughout my life every day up to today. Ruined marriage, absentee parent, abandoned friendships, a loss of fundamental purpose and confidence, addiction issues, financial hardship.
Pragmatically speaking, avoid that. Never do your worst..whatever that may be and however you have it, and if you do... back off, don't double down.
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