(May 13, 2013 at 6:17 pm)Praetorian Wrote: But the value of life is fleeting, because I love meat, and would kill an animal for that meat. So to say life has value lacks substance; we need to quantify the value it has for us individually.That I believe is because morality always has an inside and an outside, an "in-group" and an "out-group", the "self" and the "other". The one is life worth living, the "other" is life that must serve the benefit of the "self", however that happens to be defined that day. Where we draw the line of "self" has been historically arbitrary, it was drawn between Europeans and the wild people of Africa/Asia, it was and is drawn between Christians and Muslims, it was drawn between whites and blacks, it was drawn between Europeans and Native Americans, and it was drawn between arians and non-arians. All with terrible outcomes.
"Men see clearly enough the barbarity of all ages — except their own!" — Ernest Crosby.
