Stephann
Posts: 4214
Joined: 12/27/2006 From: Portland, OR Status: offline
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This could become very pedantic very fast. I consider cheating on one's spouse (when promises of fidelity have been made) to be unethical, and immoral. Thus, someone who does this, would exhibit unethical and immoral behavior. I don't think this means the person is automatically unethical; a vegetarian who eats one hamburger a month is still a vegetarian, to me. Someone who regularly breaks their own rules or promises, to me, is an unethical and immoral person. Now, someone can be ethical, but immoral (from my perspective.) This means they embrace their own ethical concepts, and abide by what they consider to be 'right.' Sometimes this is known as honor among thieves. A pimp in the US is engaging in behavior that is against common morality, but if he willingnly chooses to incorporate managing sex slaves as 'right' to him, than he is following his own ethics. I can still say that, because we share space in the same society (and indirectly or directly, I have to deal with the consequences of his presence) he is contributing to immoral behavior, because I consider his acts to be against my own sense of morality. Essentially, ethics are made of the system of morality (or moralities), as shoshilicious pointed out in the definition. As to the topic at hand, it isn't that they're having sex with people who aren't their partners that is the issue. It's that they are breaking promises they have made to their spouses to be faithful instead of renegotiating the rules of engagement. Good people sometimes break their promises, and sometimes bad people keep them. But breaking a promise is unethical, anyway you paint it. Stephan
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Nosce Te Ipsum "The blade itself incites to violence" - Homer Men: Find a Woman here
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