is procrastinating immoral ?

[DramaQueen]

What is moral? I believe that hurting people physically and deceit to be immoral? But what about religious indoctrination? And what about not teaching a child how to swim? How do we define what's moral?

I'm not really good at this (yet), so feedback is very welcome.

[Endo]

What is moral? I believe that hurting people physically and deceit to be immoral? But what about religious indoctrination? And what about not teaching a child how to swim? How do we define what's moral?

I'm not really good at this (yet), so feedback is very welcome.

"Morals" are often derived from "first principles". So, establish a general statement, and analyze your actions in accordance with that general rule.

The term "morals" and "ethics" are kind of hazy terms, and are more often used as adjectives than nouns, they're usually used in reference to the quality of an action or stance, rather than being a "thing" by themselves.

For instance, us Libertarians claim as a first principle the "Non-Aggression Principle", which basically says this: "Don't be the guy who starts the fight, either with words, actions, or other powers." This is usually applied to government, and gives us a nice soundbite to explain our Anarchic tendencies. Specifically, this can be applied to personal interactions easily, "Am I directly harming someone through this action or inaction?" If you refuse to teach your child to swim, and prohibit others from doing so as well, then that can be quite detrimental to your child's immediate health if you live near significant bodies of water. However, if you are in a desert community with no pools for miles around, then it's not that big of a deal. Eventually, your child will become an adult and move out, and can then learn how to swim on their own.

Religious indoctrination has been shown to be severely detrimental to children's mental health, having the "gun" of "hell" shoved in their face everytime they disobey is damaging to their psyches, and can thus be considered immoral.

[downbeatplumb]

is procrastinating immoral ?

I'll tell you later.

[bennyboy]

I would say that an immoral act is one which is either known to have a net negative effect, or can reasonably be expected to. The problem is that in order to determine the polarity of an effect, you need to know what goal you're talking about-- and not all people hold as "good" the same goals.

For example, some people see humanity as a disease-- a scourge on an otherwise healthy planet. In their case, death and disease among humans might represent the best net positive effect one could hope for. Others see humanity as gods incarnate-- the only animal truly capable of understanding and eventually taking care of Mother Earth. They might think we should create as many humans as possible, extending the reaches of the bell curve and increasing the chance that some genius will exist who can solve all of our technological problems.

In both cases, I'd say procrastinating as immoral. It is a failure to contribute your efforts toward achieving that goal.

However, if, as most here, you see the entire goal-choosing process arbitrary and ultimately without meaning, then it doesn't really matter what you do, or do not do, in moral terms.

[naimless]

no

/thread

[DLJ]

Sorry it took me so long to reply...


...


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yes


it is.

[stonedape]

Responsibility is a moral trait. Procrastination is an irresponsible trait. So, I'm going to go to bed.

[Hunafae!i]

Humans appear to be aware of the idea that a host of benefits can be reaped if you alter your behaviour to an improvement. Benjamin Franklin would have been often found looking at ways to refine his speech, manner, disputation and ideas. He got rather stuck on one of his 'moral perfection' goals, 'order' to be precise. He found it 'extremely difficult to aquire. 'I had not been early accustomed to it', yet he concluded with the following, 'for something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such extreme nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which had it be known, would make me ridiculous' and 'that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself'.

There's nothing sinister in comtemplation for its own sake, but I would not go to the extreme case of meditating in a cave, unless for Plato's cave that is. But not for long, iv'e got better things to think about.

[Angrboda]

Religious indoctrination has been shown to be severely detrimental to children's mental health, having the "gun" of "hell" shoved in their face everytime they disobey is damaging to their psyches, and can thus be considered immoral.

Citation needed.

[Chad32]

Is procrastinating immoral?

Let me get back to you on that.



Seems I've been beaten to that joke. Darn.