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A comment on Kill Whitey- It’s the right thing to do.. Parent comment

Re:Kill Whitey- It’s the right thing to do. by philwelch on Thursday September 16, 2010 @12:16PM (#1698226)
The real joke is that philosophers do this, too. If your ethical theory doesn't quite fit with people's moral intuitions, most philosophers will argue that, in itself, is a problem with the theory.

This is why I don't put much stock in ethical theory--if intuition is a good enough moral guide that we use it to refute ethical theories, why do we need a theory? More damningly, on what other grounds can we possibly criticize an ethical theory?

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Re:Kill Whitey- It’s the right thing to do. by lukev on Thursday September 16, 2010 @12:34PM (#1698277)
Well, I think the search for an ethical theory is still valid. That's one of the main exercises of philosophy, taking a lot of particular data points (in this case, moral intuitions) and trying to find some overarching pattern or system. Just because we haven't found a consistent one yet (or even if such a system does not exist) it doesn't mean the search isn't worthwhile.
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