Welcome back to Danny’s musings on moral philosophy and ethics.. this time, stirred up by a heated debate between Andrew Wilson and Dave Smith on whether libertarianism is better than christian ethics.. (linked at the end)
After watching the whole debate and a commentary on the debate by Destiny (a popular streamer) I’m once again left feeling disrobed and laid bare to the elements regarding what is right and wrong and how someone might come to find an answer.
After about a hundred thousand tornado brain RPMs and a couple long showers with my head leaned against the wall, I’ve come up with a way to at least conceptualize the problem.. a useful analogy to help illustrate the way I now see the world when it comes to individuals and their ethics.
I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I often find myself in an imaginary debate or podcast with someone that quickly devolves into a discussion about ethics in which I’m being poorly judged and held with my feet to the fire. In these imaginary discussions the conversation inevitably filters down to ethical bedrock.. and in my experience, the vast majority of people do not have a firm footing on said ethical bedrock.
This is because building an ethical framework that is functional and coherent is HARD.
Here’s where my analogy comes in. If you would kindly follow me for a moment.. I’d like to compare the concept of an ethical framework to a computer.
There are multiple reasons this analogy works for me. The first being that computers are extremely complex and most people who use them have absolutely no idea how they really work. And so it is with ethics… Most of our ethics have been developed and passed down to us in the form of religion and culture for thousands of years.
Most people buy their computers off the shelf.. they don’t build them. I would argue though, you can build them.
Many great thinkers have tackled these issues and created their own frameworks independently from religion. They still have their flaws though…as does religion. However, a very common argument you will hear from religious fundamentalists is:
You can’t have morality without God.
This is a compelling argument, but how does it account for the fact that there are atheists who would fit almost perfectly into a religious person’s ethical box? They don’t cheat, steal, kill, etc.. but not because God commands it but because of.. wait for it..
Moral intuition. They just feel like it’s wrong. Tada! Problem solved!
Not so fast though.. I’ll save you the research and just fill you in on the fact that moral intuition is a horrible way to build a computer. Is it that hard to see how getting your right and wrong from how you feel just isn’t gonna work out in a world where people often feel differently about important issues. This can work in the short term but, arguably, will inevitably degrade into chaos.
So we are basically back to needing God for morality (a pre-built computer) unless we painstakingly build our own. To strengthen this analogy, let me illustrate it further…
Imagine what it would take to build a computer from scratch including the software. Now, assuming you can use Youtube and Google and you have enough time on your hands, it’s conceivable that this would be possible.. but it’s also safe to assume that there are probably a lot of people who just aren’t smart enough to figure it out.. and those people are just gonna need a pre built computer.
Funny enough, I don’t even know what you would need to know in order to build a computer from scratch. I was actually curious about this so I looked it up and found a semi satirical video about how to make a CPU.. prepare to be bamboozled.
Yeah… and that’s just for a CPU now try creating all the other components and integrating them together.. Oooops. I would argue that even if you were given a handicap and could get some of these parts pre-made, you would still be waaaay in over your head.
Now let’s look at the person who is capable of building their own computer in terms of creating your own ethical framework. Essentially you would need to be steeped in the already existent schools of moral philosophy (which is thousands of years of writings and teaching). On top of that, you’re going to need at least a cursory understanding of psychology, biology, economics, politics, history, and arguably multiple other fields of science. How else would you be able to understand the potential implications of actions to determine if they would be right or wrong?
This is almost a trick question because our world is so complex that expecting a person to figure this out is almost laughable. However, there are a few among us and a few who have come before us that have done a pretty good job and gotten relatively close to something that seems as if it may work.
All this to say… people who can build their own computer that would actually work and run well is 0.000000001% of the population and unless it’s you.. You probably just got yours pre-made off the shelf and, if asked to explain how it works in any detail, would fumble and stutter about like a complete ding dong.
If you don’t fit into either of those buckets that mean’s you’re just going along based off of how you feel and while it might not be super easy to see where this goes wrong.. Just imagine trying to argue someone else out of doing something you don’t like and saying well it just seeeeems wrong.. oop.
So, maybe save your breathe before you judge someone else’s actions. Maybe spend less time talking shit about other people’s computers and spend a little more time trying to understand your own. Maybe even try doing some research to see if you could benefit from a replacement or upgrade.
My apologies if that seemed a little hostile there at the end. I was sucked back into my imaginary conversation that I referenced earlier.
I’m sure this won’t be the last you hear of this.. I’ve realized that to even think about this stuff you kind of have to define what right and wrong even means. Like what is something that’s “right” even pointing towards? So expect a deep dive into that in the future as well.
In closing, I would like to challenge YOU to actually take some time and interrogate your moral and ethical convictions. It’s surprising how difficult it is to come up with airtight arguments for whatever you think is right or wrong. Good luck out there!
If you liked this, check out my previous post about the ethics here
(btw the debate i referenced earlier is a great example of people arguing over what computer is best) Here is the debate and here is the version with Destiny’s commentary.
As always, I’m happy to receive feedback, advice or to just have a conversation about any of the topics on this blog! Don’t hesitate to comment or reach out via social media
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I rebraded Sky Stories and the first episode is now on spotify!
Strike Tracker
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The feeling calmness on my morning walk. It’s like the world is paused and everything is okay.
The buzz of excitement and anticipation before my podcast appearance on ‘write songs you love’.
had a business call with a content creator and he was so happy and excited to work together. The vibe was infectious (maybe fake?) but left me feeling like I should be more like that..
Concepts:
Everything is transient.
don’t be afraid of loosing people, be afraid of losing yourself trying to please people
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Twitter Video that makes an astounding amount of sense (regarding relationships and modesty). I love when something you intuitively know and experience gets explicitly explained in a clear way. It’s like heroin to me haha.