Ethics [Thursday, September 16, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

"'Do unto others as you would have done unto you,'" Anakin quoted as the students found their seats. "On this planet, that phrase is known as the Golden Rule. It sounds quite altruistic, which might be why they are more than a few more cynical versions of it around: 'do unto others before they can do unto you,' and the like. The rule also seems to be assuming that everyone wants the same things done to them. But what if you don't mind getting poked in the stomach? Does it follow that you could aimlessly poke people? What if you don't see anything wrong with stealing, or killing, or hating entire groups of people?"

He shrugged. "I suppose the Golden Rule could be simplified as 'be nice to people, so 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?"

He smiled. "I like to ask nice, easy questions."

Comments

Sign in [9/16]

[sith_happened]

With your most forgiving icon!

Re: Sign in [9/16]

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Rosalind

Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[sith_happened]

Take notes! Wonder how you are going to answer all of those questions.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Rosalind frowned slightly as she listened.

Too simple by far, she thought.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[furnaceface]

Jono's eyebrow furrowed a bit as he listened to the lecture. Anakin's logic made sense, if you didn't think on it too hard, but it all seemed a little... Skewed, perhaps.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

Depending on the circumstances, Leda didn't see anything wrong with stealing. She was going to not think about the second part of that thank you very much.

And she was pretty sure that someone who was inclined to hate entire groups of people, really didn't see anything wrong with it.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba almost laughed. No one, not until Fandom, had truly treated her in a way they would want to be treated.

She dutifully jotted down notes, though.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Azula was barely listening at this point. She knew nothing about Professor Skywalker's Golden Rules. The only only golden rule she knew was related entirely to the Fire Nation.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

More stuff to think about. Notes notes notes. Maybe Professor Skywalker should rename his course to Doubting Ethics, or something like that.

She would spend the rest of the lecture trying not to grin at herself.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

Simple in theory, simple in practice. James grinned. This might be fun today.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[super-tactile.livejournal.com]

Kon could have been taking notes, but he preferred to take a nap. And check out the lovely ladies.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[nohaircutsplz]

Medusalith had never heard of this thing before, and so had no idea of whether Anakin was being facetious or playing devil's advocate or was dead serious. Surely the stated 'rule' didn't mean, 'go ahead and be terrible if you wouldn't mind people being terrible to you,' (although she guessed she wouldn't be too terribly surprised, either) but she felt like she was missing cultural context or something, and was left feeling terribly confused.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall started to take notes, but got lost in trying to unravel the meaning of the Golden Rule and ended up just staring at his paper lost in thought.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/16]

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara didn't take any notes, since it was hard to write when you'd accidentally snapped your pen in two.

Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[sith_happened]

"What if you don't mind getting poked in the stomach? According to the Golden Rule, would it follow that you could aimlessly poke people? What if you don't see anything wrong with stealing, or killing, or hating entire groups of people?"

Or:

"Is the Golden Rule 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?"

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[furnaceface]

//I think th'point of the rule isn't, 'do unto others as you don't mind people doing unto you,// Jonothon noted, crossing his arms over his something-like-a-chest and raising his eyebrows. //Even if somebody didn't mind being poked, I should think they would mind if somebody else chose not to respect their personal levels of comfort. And stealing is an inside-out notion entirely, really. A better question to ask would be, 'what if you don't see anything wrong with being stolen from, or murdered, or hated because of what you are?'//

He shook his head and narrowed his eyes a little, somewhere toward his desk.

//I can't think of many people who are terribly keen on any of that, really.//

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like it's a case of, take an ideal, and put a catchy, easily remembered phrase to it and hope it catches on."

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"It's a foolish rule," Elphaba said. "While well intentioned, it doesn't make sense. If you don't think well enough of a person to not make fun of them, then you hardly care if they try to make fun of you. So you treat them terribly and that's that. It's not going to make anyone be nice."

She had quite a bit of experience, there.

"The best to say would be... don't deliberately hurt others, and try to make amends if you do. But even then, you realize that sometimes you have to hurt others to stop them from... hurting others." She frowned at the imprecise nature of her statement.

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"And what if I don't find killing or hating entire groups of people wrong?" Azula countered to see how Master Skywalker would answer the question.

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Kennedy hadn't grown so much that her answer would be notably different now than it had been a year and change ago, but she had grown enough that she stopped to think about it before answering.

"It's way too broad-- or vague, or whatever-- to be useful," she said easily. A faint smirk she wouldn't explain crossed her face as she added, "It sounds good and all, kinda looks good framed in cross-stitch, or spelled out in Swarovski crystal even if that is way tacky. But you're gonna run into complications if you're just gonna assume everybody you run across on the street wants to be a decent person."

You know. Like if that guy on the street corner could go yellow-eyed and bumpy-faced any second and try to eat you. Because she didn't want to return the favor. Ew.

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"It's an ideal, certainly," William acknowledged. "And I think some might choose to interpret it as you say, along the lines of 'I did it because I don't see anything wrong with it', but those who do try that argument usually are aware that they have done something wrong and are trying to confuse the issue with semantics." He blushed, thinking of the times he'd used 'But it was for science!' as an excuse for wrongdoing.

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"There is a difference between finding something offending or not, and deciding that since it doesn't affect you, then it shouldn't affect anyone at all. That's really childish, and, in its own way, offensive." She shrugged, since she didn't think people that way would actually stop to think about it. "It's like an allergy; I might not die if I eat peanuts, but because of that I shouldn't be careful that someone next to me might or might not be allergic." It was a little exaggerated, but she thought the idea was there.

"I guess it's just a way to say something complicated in a simple way? Be nice and people will be nice to you, the idea isn't to see the fact the world doesn't work like that, but to set an example so more and more people act that way?"

Talk to the TAs [9/16]

[sith_happened]

Hello, Kennedy and Cassidy!

Re: Talk to the TAs [9/16]

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Hey, look, Kennedy was here. If asked she could tell you a story about a neighbor's summer party in the Hamptons a couple of years ago, and the irony of a Golden Rule plaque on prominent display in one of the bedrooms when she and another girl had snuck up there, or how they'd chosen to interpret the phrase, but--

Well, that story wasn't fit for class, anyway.

Talk to Anakin [9/16]

[sith_happened]

Hello, Anakin!

OOC

[sith_happened]

Not enough coffee in the world for today, ya'll.