Re:Snowden Documents Indicate NSA Has Breached Deutsche Telekom
by RivieraKid on Sunday September 14, 2014 @03:22PM
(#8315982)
That sounds silly. Ethics is subjective. When you teach "This is wrong." and the student replies "I feel it's right.", what do you say? Unless you have some ethical framework plus a good reason to follow act according that framework, you operate on the level of subjective feelings and opinions.
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Re:Snowden Documents Indicate NSA Has Breached Deutsche Telekom
by pluma on Sunday September 14, 2014 @03:44PM
(#8316038)
There is such a thing as "ethics class" and it's really not about dogmatic "do this" or "don't do that". Instead it analyzes various situations to derive insight about why some things are ethically right and some aren't.
By calling it entirely pointless you're dismissing a whole branch of philosophy. I know moral relativism is still popular among some groups of people, but there are other approaches to understanding morality. And no, I'm not talking about religion or Ayn Rand.
Re:Snowden Documents Indicate NSA Has Breached Deutsche Telekom
by RivieraKid on Sunday September 14, 2014 @03:51PM
(#8316061)
> derive insight about why some things are ethically right and some aren't
What exactly "ethically right" means is subjective.
> you're dismissing a whole branch of philosophy
Yes, and it's not the only branch I dismiss :-)
> but there are other approaches to understanding morality
For example? My problem with ethical systems is that they're built on a subjective feelings of rightness and wrongness.