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Michael Kowalik's avatar

Excellent piece! I like to say that This world is justice. We unwittingly choose whether to become more human or more animal, or even become like stone. The moral consequences are built into the logical structure of reality itself, although this is not externally apparent as ‘suffering’ but internalised in the metaphysical constitution of every conscious agent.

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Harrison Koehli's avatar

What do you think of this way of framing it? In any given situation, there are better and worse ways of achieving "x." In some contexts, that will mean doing one thing, which might not apply as well in other contexts. So for one society, for example, to achieve or maximize "x" might entail certain values, but for another society, those might not work. (And it's possible that any given society might do a very poor job, even given their own context.) Moral realism is thus true in the sense that there are better and worse ways. But those ways will vary, which means no (or few?) one-size-fits all moral imperatives under which we are obligated.

Also, what works in one context might not work in a larger context. So, I might be able to maximize some things for myself, but at the expense of everyone else. It's a limited viewpoint that shuts out understanding and loving ALL, and thus fragmentary.

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