principles

[worldandtime]

Periodically, I think about principles and how they--and their lack--influence our behavior. The intellectual difficulties are greatest, I find, when there are competing goods although there can be huge practical issues even when the ethical issue itself seems clear-cut.

Comments

[worldandtime]

Yes, we should question our own principles--which doesn't necessarily mean changing them. What makes this all so difficult seems to me to be three things: 1) you need to have some principles to start with, and they should (I think) include a mixture of "standing up for what's right" and "being compassionate about (the shortcomings of)others; 2) you need to realize that sometimes your principles of action don't adequately cover all the cases you may run into (which means you sometimes need to make exceptions for them or modify them); 3) you need to take action when action is needed so that you don't necessarily have time for a "perfect" answer.

The conscience answer may be the best rule-of-thumb, but in that case the training that develops our individual consciences becomes incredibly important. Whatever your feelings on abortion, most people don't think it's perfectly ok to kill employees of planned parenthood. Yet, clearly some people do think that (since some people do this periodically). Leaving things purely up to the consciences of such people produces a result that most of us don't feel comfortable with.

Or, take suicide bombers in the middle east. Or the guy who was quoted in the NYT today as having said that if Hamas continues to be "pushed around" they will have to kill the journalist they have hostage in order to increase their standing with God (he didn't say "increase their standing," but it was words to that effect). I was appalled that anyone could say that killing a helpless person would make god happier with him-the-killer. But then I realized that that attitude was very common among Christians in the Middle Ages during the Crusades and the European religious wars, so...