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Asm 101
My (bad) version of lstrcpy
Anatomy of a bitmap file
Anatomy of a wave file
C runtimes for asm
Minesweeper for the Casio fx-9750G calculator
Metronome in assembler
IRC chatlogger bot source
ID3 tag reader
nofrillz blog section
Magnetiser firefox addon
English-Polish dictionary
Preview of "On Morality and Reason"
Author: jono
Moral Scenarios
People like Stewart Easton claim tha ‘there is no objective reason to be moral, unless morality “pays off” in his social life or makes him “feel good”’. However, we can envisage many scenarios where “reason” would suggest that being moral is the correct course to take. One such scenario is that of a robber or thief. Obviously, in terms of personal benefit it would make much more sense when shopping to just steal the goods that one needs. Many people would say that such theft is “morally” wrong. However, an appeal to reason suggests that attempting to steal or take all the goods one needs is not the smart thing to so. Obviously the chances of actually successfully stealing goods from supermarket or department store are pretty small for the average shopper. Stores usually have security in place for such an event. A cost/benefit analysis of the situation suggests that the potential costs – fines, a criminal record, perhaps jail – outweigh the obvious potential benefits. Thus, reason suggests that the right decision would be what many people label the “moral” one, the decision to pay for the items one needs. This thought scenario suggests that perhaps reason and moral decisions are more connected than many people assume. One might object that it is easy to steal small items – in the long run however, these small items such as candy have little bearing on ones overall needs and can be considered outliers in the overall scheme of things. Interestingly, when one thinks about stealing personally, one sees the scenario much in the terms outlined above.
However, we see that the moral situation is clouded when we envisage the situation as someone else stealing. How many people really actually care about whether a stranger who is doing the stealing is acting morally wrong? I think we would find that there would be a split between people who actually truly believe that the persons actions are morally wrong and those who don’t care, purely because his actions have no effect on their own lives. These people are perhaps more inclined to say that the persons behaviour is stupid – for the reasons outlined earlier, the persons actions are more likely to have negative, rather than positive consequences. Additionally, of those people who say that it is morally wrong to steal, we need to look at the reasons why they think it is morally wrong to steal. The first objection we would assume most people would have would be that the person is taking something that is not theirs. This assumes that as a society we have common rules on what personal property is and about ownership. Second, people would then object that the person has not earned whatever it is that they are stealing; again this says a lot about how as a society we view work and ownership, it would seem that as a society we believe that people should earn the possessions that they have. Third, we would see on objection on the grounds that the person who is being stolen from is being unfairly disadvantaged, this objection appeals to the first two objections, namely that the person who is being stolen from owns the property, and second that they in some way have earned the right to that property and are therefore entitled to be paid for it. The follow on then is that they are losing out financially and personally when being stolen from. Clearly it seems, when a person says that is morally wrong to steal they are appealing to a host of reasons why it is wrong to steal. Nowhere in this scenario it seems is there a God who is providing us with reasons why stealing is wrong. These reasons seem to originate from societies values about property and work (in the sense of earning what you own). Because of this, we can see a clear link between morality and reason, and little connection between God and morality – for where does God ever provide the reasons behind why something is wrong? The Bible just plainly states that one should not steal and no reasoning. Thus, if God is not providing the reasons who or what is? The answer it seems is us.
People like Stewart Easton claim tha ‘there is no objective reason to be moral, unless morality “pays off” in his social life or makes him “feel good”’. However, we can envisage many scenarios where “reason” would suggest that being moral is the correct course to take. One such scenario is that of a robber or thief. Obviously, in terms of personal benefit it would make much more sense when shopping to just steal the goods that one needs. Many people would say that such theft is “morally” wrong. However, an appeal to reason suggests that attempting to steal or take all the goods one needs is not the smart thing to so. Obviously the chances of actually successfully stealing goods from supermarket or department store are pretty small for the average shopper. Stores usually have security in place for such an event. A cost/benefit analysis of the situation suggests that the potential costs – fines, a criminal record, perhaps jail – outweigh the obvious potential benefits. Thus, reason suggests that the right decision would be what many people label the “moral” one, the decision to pay for the items one needs. This thought scenario suggests that perhaps reason and moral decisions are more connected than many people assume. One might object that it is easy to steal small items – in the long run however, these small items such as candy have little bearing on ones overall needs and can be considered outliers in the overall scheme of things. Interestingly, when one thinks about stealing personally, one sees the scenario much in the terms outlined above.
However, we see that the moral situation is clouded when we envisage the situation as someone else stealing. How many people really actually care about whether a stranger who is doing the stealing is acting morally wrong? I think we would find that there would be a split between people who actually truly believe that the persons actions are morally wrong and those who don’t care, purely because his actions have no effect on their own lives. These people are perhaps more inclined to say that the persons behaviour is stupid – for the reasons outlined earlier, the persons actions are more likely to have negative, rather than positive consequences. Additionally, of those people who say that it is morally wrong to steal, we need to look at the reasons why they think it is morally wrong to steal. The first objection we would assume most people would have would be that the person is taking something that is not theirs. This assumes that as a society we have common rules on what personal property is and about ownership. Second, people would then object that the person has not earned whatever it is that they are stealing; again this says a lot about how as a society we view work and ownership, it would seem that as a society we believe that people should earn the possessions that they have. Third, we would see on objection on the grounds that the person who is being stolen from is being unfairly disadvantaged, this objection appeals to the first two objections, namely that the person who is being stolen from owns the property, and second that they in some way have earned the right to that property and are therefore entitled to be paid for it. The follow on then is that they are losing out financially and personally when being stolen from. Clearly it seems, when a person says that is morally wrong to steal they are appealing to a host of reasons why it is wrong to steal. Nowhere in this scenario it seems is there a God who is providing us with reasons why stealing is wrong. These reasons seem to originate from societies values about property and work (in the sense of earning what you own). Because of this, we can see a clear link between morality and reason, and little connection between God and morality – for where does God ever provide the reasons behind why something is wrong? The Bible just plainly states that one should not steal and no reasoning. Thus, if God is not providing the reasons who or what is? The answer it seems is us.
