Ethics [Thursday, October 8, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"I trust that all of you survived your weekend with your relatives mostly intact," Anakin said, sweeping into the room precisely on time. "Today we talk about something called the Golden Rule, a concept which unites many separate religions on this planet," he said, leaning against his desk and stared around the classroom. "It sounds altruistic: 'do unto others as you would have done unto you', but there's a couple of logical flaws in it. What if you don't mind getting poked in the stomach? Does it follow that you could wander around aimlessly poking people? What if you don't see what's wrong with stealing? Or killing? Or hating entire groups of people on principle? If the practical application is supposed to be you randomly help people because they could be good, wouldn't the opposite be that you could randomly harm people because they might be evil?"

He shrugged. "I suppose the Golden Rule could be broken down to 'be nice to people, and they'll be nice to you' but out here in the real world, we all know it doesn't exactly work like that, and the concept could also be reinterpreted as 'it doesn't bother me, so why does it bother you?' Is this a case of aiming for an ideal and hoping that it will cause a ripple effect of positive things, or something overly simplistic that taken to its logical extreme renders itself useless? Has seeing it on everything from coffee mugs to tea towels made the very idea of it trite, or does it still have a place in the mind of someone trying to lead an ethical life?"

Comments

Re: Answer discussion question #1!

[life_inshadow]

"I-I-I think anything can be taken to an extreme wh-where it just gets silly," Tara offered. "I, uh, don't have a problem with the basic idea of being good to people because you would like them to be good to you. I don't think the reverse -- b-being bad to people because you can justify it -- is okay."

Re: Answer discussion question #1!

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Do you think everyone else will share your opinion?"

Re: Answer discussion question #1!

[life_inshadow]

Tara moved her lips to one side, debating the question. "M-my mom always says that it'd be boring if everybody felt the same way all the time," she said. "I think I'm right? But I, uh. I don't think everyone will agree, no."