morality or ethics

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Twizelby
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morality or ethics

Post by Twizelby »

Do you prefer to say ethical or moral when in a debate. Morality to me always seems to denote religion because it implies objectivity. Ethical seems to be more of a reasoned approach. I only ask because I hear vegans use it interchangeably.
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bobo0100
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Re: morality or ethics

Post by bobo0100 »

They are interchangeable words, I use both. I don't think that implying objectivity makes it religious. If you look at say peater singers teachings he is an atheist, and he thinks objectively when making moral decisions.

Objective: (of a person or their judgement) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

This means that the Christian morality is not objective at all, it is subjective to the views of the religious persons imaginary friend, or "god".

But enough with the argument from authority. You realise that the same arguments used to make morality look subjective can be used to make: truth and health look subjective. The argument I'm talking about is the classic old, what if I don't think that's wrong?

What if I don't think the big bangs true? I will admit the objective truth question is floored as it confuses the definition between truth and belief, and we cannot get from one to the other.

What if you met someone that truly wanted to be throwing up, can you truly say your any more healthy than them? However we can be objective about health. If your body is effected in a way that will reduce your well being or chance of continuing life, than you are in ill health.

In the same way we can be objective about morality. It's called utilitarianism I believe. If your actions decrease the happiness of a being or increases it's suffering. Than it is objectively morally wrong to do such a thing.

I know the floors of utilitarianism these floors make its practice only applicable to what a term as "faceless morality". Non faceless morality is admirably a tougher question. As I will explain using the following examples.

1] you are at a intersection on a train track. There is a lever to make the train go to the left or right track. You spot a train coming and there is NO way of stoping it. The lever is currently set to have the train go left. There are 3 workers on the left track, and one on the right track. Do you pull the lever? if you do you are practicing utilitarianism.

2] you are on a rig above a train track with a fat guy. There are like the last time 3 guys working on the tracks. You spot a train coming. if you where to push the fat guy onto the track you know 100% that the train will stop slavering the 3 workers, but it would also kill the fat guy. This example is clearly not faceless morrality.
vegan: to exclude—as far as is practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for any purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: morality or ethics

Post by brimstoneSalad »

The two are pretty much interchangeable. One is Latin, the other is Greek.

Ethics, due to its Greek root, holds more connotation of discourse, and systematic philosophy.
Morality may have more poetic connotations.
They don't fundamentally mean different things, but "ethics" is what the formal field in philosophy is called, and it deals with moral issues, but can also be taken to deal with a consistent code, e.g. professional ethics, within a field.
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Shadow Fox
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Re: morality or ethics

Post by Shadow Fox »

I thought the two were basically the same thing?
We are all born Atheists, everyone of us. We are born without the Shackles of theism arresting our minds. It is not until we are poisoned by the fears and delusions of others that we become trapped in the psychopathic dream world of theism.
Twizelby
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Re: morality or ethics

Post by Twizelby »

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Shadow Fox
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Re: morality or ethics

Post by Shadow Fox »

ah, ok. I knew a couple differences but the main two I was unsure of what made them different was at the top two in that link.

Thank You. I learned a little bit more today!
We are all born Atheists, everyone of us. We are born without the Shackles of theism arresting our minds. It is not until we are poisoned by the fears and delusions of others that we become trapped in the psychopathic dream world of theism.
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