tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8298987228654885397.post6168225646436512797..comments2023-09-05T02:18:27.972-07:00Comments on Confessions of a Catholic Atheist: Moral Relativism, or Why Everything Isn't OKDalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10055971697035904237noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8298987228654885397.post-48075507797696004662009-11-15T14:47:28.979-08:002009-11-15T14:47:28.979-08:00There's relativism, and there's relativism...There's relativism, and there's relativism. If we say that morality is determined by what's good for the community as a whole, we need to be careful what we mean when we say "community". The good of the community may override the good of the individual (though that's a simplistic statement about something that is likely to be quite complex), but the good of our own particular community isn't the only consideration. Just as we, as individuals, are members of a community, our community is a member of a larger community — the human race.<br /><br />If individual human morality (our inbuilt "moral instinct") is a result of evolving in social groups, we must codify that morality (enforceable laws, etc) relative to the human race at large, and not just relative to our own community.<br /><br />To take your example, Hitler was doing something that individually we condemn, but which he considered was right and proper. It may have been good for the community of the Third Reich, but that was only an individual community in the larger community of humanity as a whole, which, as a whole (mostly), condemned it.<br /><br />Relativism in regard to morality is often seen as a dirty word, but we have to ask: relative to what? My answer is, relative to the human race as a whole.Paul S. Jenkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.com