I think dying, or action for your values is the action of a belief. A belief is just something you think is true. A belief can just be "The letter B is really cool" a value of that belief might be "use as many b's in a sentence as you can." then people would make sentences like . . . man this comment has some really clever potential but I can't think of any good sentences with lots of B's in them.
Aristotles ultimate concern: moderation. Not valuing one thing at the cost of another, more or less. Paradox fun :)
"There's nothing wrong with dying". I would disagree, I think there is something wrong with dying. For twoish reasons:
1. Death itself is BAD, it is the way things shouldn't be. 2. Life has inherent worth regardless of whether or not the person who it belongs to thinks it does. But then, I think to that: Well, . . . sure dying is bad . . . but aren't there things that override that badness? Things that are worth the dying? . . . I would have to say that yes, there are.
I guess . . . in the sense of "kill or be killed" . . . if those are your only options, then yeah . . . being killed seems like the more moral option.
About beliefs and values. Like Thursday said, a belief is something that you think is true. And a value is something that you think is important. Which can make them almost the same in practice, except in cases when you think something untrue is important. (Example... you could say justice is important but it isn't specifically /true/. It depends if something has to be a statement to be true.) Or when you think that something is true, but not important. (Yes, it's true, and I believe that some days are rainy, but I don't think that's very important. And there's little I could do, anyway, to control the weather even if I did think it was important. :P)
"There's nothing wrong with dying." I think the wrongness of killing is inherent in the value of life, and it's not based on consent to give up rights. (this relates to Sunday's point about suicide) So, I think it's wrong to kill someone else or yourself, even if they (or you) ask you[rself] to.
Another thought: maybe when people let themselves be killed for their values, they aren't specifically saying that their lives aren't valuable, but just risking their lives. And so risking your life might be moral, even if suicide isn't.
People who kill themselves because they think death is easier than life would be selfish, because personal comfort/happiness isn't an external value they can't enjoy.
A Year Of Questions is a project begun on March 22, 2010, by seven teens who want to be better at asking questions and articulating answers. This blog exists to make it easier to discuss these questions (because a 500 character limit on YouTube comments is rather limiting). Enjoy!
2 comments:
I think dying, or action for your values is the action of a belief. A belief is just something you think is true. A belief can just be "The letter B is really cool" a value of that belief might be "use as many b's in a sentence as you can." then people would make sentences like . . . man this comment has some really clever potential but I can't think of any good sentences with lots of B's in them.
Aristotles ultimate concern: moderation. Not valuing one thing at the cost of another, more or less. Paradox fun :)
"There's nothing wrong with dying". I would disagree, I think there is something wrong with dying. For twoish reasons:
1. Death itself is BAD, it is the way things shouldn't be.
2. Life has inherent worth regardless of whether or not the person who it belongs to thinks it does. But then, I think to that: Well, . . . sure dying is bad . . . but aren't there things that override that badness? Things that are worth the dying? . . . I would have to say that yes, there are.
I guess . . . in the sense of "kill or be killed" . . . if those are your only options, then yeah . . . being killed seems like the more moral option.
About beliefs and values. Like Thursday said, a belief is something that you think is true. And a value is something that you think is important. Which can make them almost the same in practice, except in cases when you think something untrue is important. (Example... you could say justice is important but it isn't specifically /true/. It depends if something has to be a statement to be true.) Or when you think that something is true, but not important. (Yes, it's true, and I believe that some days are rainy, but I don't think that's very important. And there's little I could do, anyway, to control the weather even if I did think it was important. :P)
"There's nothing wrong with dying." I think the wrongness of killing is inherent in the value of life, and it's not based on consent to give up rights. (this relates to Sunday's point about suicide) So, I think it's wrong to kill someone else or yourself, even if they (or you) ask you[rself] to.
Another thought: maybe when people let themselves be killed for their values, they aren't specifically saying that their lives aren't valuable, but just risking their lives. And so risking your life might be moral, even if suicide isn't.
People who kill themselves because they think death is easier than life would be selfish, because personal comfort/happiness isn't an external value they can't enjoy.
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