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fandomhigh2018-09-11 10:12 am
sith_happened) wrote in fandomhigh2018-09-11 10:12 am
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Practical Ethics, Tuesday, September 11, 2018
"Good morning, everyone," Anakin began from his normal spot in front of class. "There are a variety of ways to approach ethics, and coming to a consensus on what 'good' and 'bad' are can shift dramatically between cultures."
Aphra had her feet up on the desk, because that was a perfectly valid teaching position in her culture. (Spoiler, it wasn't.) "But people can get all weird if you try to explain that their 'pillaging their cultural hertiage' is your 'valuable research. It's one of the reasons I stick to recovering weapons.'"
She was noble like that.
Anakin pursed his lips. "That wasn't exactly the example I was thinking of. But most beings I've encountered seem to agree that murder is bad, taking things that aren't yours--" hard stare at Aphra, "--is bad, blaspheming the local diety is bad, being rude to your elders is bad--can you think of any other universal constants?"
"Being judgemental is annoying?" Aphra, no.
"No," Anakin said shortly. "There's a list on this planet known as the Seven Deadly Sins. It's a sort of shortcut straight to whatever version of eternal torment they believe in: do any of these seven things and it's straight to hell for you, apparently. While there is some wiggle room in applying all of them--there always is in ethics, the seven do a good job of encapsulating some of the worst impulses of sentient beings: wrath, greed, lust, gluttony, envy, sloth, and pride."
"Isn't gluttony just a subset of greed?" Aphra asked no-one in particular, then shook her head an announced "And today you get to figure out your favourite!"
Aphra, why?
"That's not what I--" Anakin began, though he already had a bad feeling about this.
This was your own fault, Anakin, if anyone should have been able to guess how Aphra was going to derail this class... "Yeah, so have a good think about which of these really appeals to you and why."
Aphra had her feet up on the desk, because that was a perfectly valid teaching position in her culture. (Spoiler, it wasn't.) "But people can get all weird if you try to explain that their 'pillaging their cultural hertiage' is your 'valuable research. It's one of the reasons I stick to recovering weapons.'"
She was noble like that.
Anakin pursed his lips. "That wasn't exactly the example I was thinking of. But most beings I've encountered seem to agree that murder is bad, taking things that aren't yours--" hard stare at Aphra, "--is bad, blaspheming the local diety is bad, being rude to your elders is bad--can you think of any other universal constants?"
"Being judgemental is annoying?" Aphra, no.
"No," Anakin said shortly. "There's a list on this planet known as the Seven Deadly Sins. It's a sort of shortcut straight to whatever version of eternal torment they believe in: do any of these seven things and it's straight to hell for you, apparently. While there is some wiggle room in applying all of them--there always is in ethics, the seven do a good job of encapsulating some of the worst impulses of sentient beings: wrath, greed, lust, gluttony, envy, sloth, and pride."
"Isn't gluttony just a subset of greed?" Aphra asked no-one in particular, then shook her head an announced "And today you get to figure out your favourite!"
Aphra, why?
"That's not what I--" Anakin began, though he already had a bad feeling about this.
This was your own fault, Anakin, if anyone should have been able to guess how Aphra was going to derail this class... "Yeah, so have a good think about which of these really appeals to you and why."
Re: Discuss!