From: Randall Randall (randall@randallsquared.com)
Date: Sun Jan 30 2005 - 16:30:13 MST
On Jan 30, 2005, at 7:43 AM, Thomas Buckner wrote:
>
> same ideas. Some of the distinctions I can see
> which make it preferable:
>
> Professional moralists (is to) professional
> ethicists as professional wrestling (is to)
> wrestling with the Big Questions.
Have you read the public pronouncements of
those who are held up as "professional
ethicists"? If they're really "wrestling with
the Big Questions", then they appear to be
regrettably getting the Big Answers mostly wrong!
In ordinary argument, morals appear to be used
as that code of behavior which one expects
oneself to follow (for whatever arguable reason),
while ethics are used as that code of behavior
you wish *other* people followed, but perhaps
not so strongly as to turn it into law.
In that spirit, morality is more general than
ethics; it includes those behaviors for which
there would still exist an "ought" were the
actor the only individual (if any such behaviors
exist, of course!).
-- Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com> What if someone said; Promise lies ahead Hopes are high in certain scientific circles Life won't have to end; You could walk again - Dream Theater, "The Great Debate"
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