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Lordandmaster -> RE: Does Domming Violate The Golden Rule? (6/14/2005 9:50:05 AM)
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I thought we've already gone over what's wrong with both these statements.
First, the Golden Rule is not limited to Judaism and Christianity. It's prominent in Confucianism. It's also related to the Greek injunction to "Know thyself." In fact, you'd have a hard time finding a traditional moral philosophy that does NOT incorporate some version of it.
Second, "Do unto others as they would like you to do unto them" is more vulnerable to abuse--of two kinds. People do not have a right to be treated however they wish to be treated. Suppose their demands are unreasonable? And here's a stumper: WHO DETERMINES whether their demands are unreasonable? Also, it's a lot easier to delude oneself about how others want to be treated than it is about how one would want to be treated if one were in someone else's shoes. You can easily talk yourself into abusing someone else with the justification that it's how the other person really wants to be treated. It's harder to do that when you're required to ask yourself whether YOU want to be treated that way.
I'm not a proponent of the Golden Rule, but please, if you're going to criticize it, know something about its history and applications.
Lam
quote:
ORIGINAL: bipolarber
There's only a moral conflict if you believe in the judeo/christian creedo of "do unto onthers as you would have them do unto you." This is a seriously flawed approach, and is widely regarded as a bad move.
Instead, try a version of what's currently being called "meta-law". (Created by scientists working on SETI, as a standard of behavior and moral stance, should mankind ever get a first contact with aliens) Basically, it says "Do unto others as they would like you to do unto them."
This means that you a) have to talk with them and find out what they need, and b) are in the moral clear by providing for them what they actually want/need, rather than pushing onto them what you THINK they want.
Subtle, but staggering in it's implications.
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