Originally posted by carpedm9587
View Post
I like this quote from this book in which Cultural Anthropologists discuss the ways in which cultures can be beneficial vs harmful:
I believe that the vast majority of the planet's people would agree with
the following assertions:
Life is better than death.
Health is better than sickness.
Liberty is better than slavery.
Prosperity is better than poverty.
the following assertions:
Life is better than death.
Health is better than sickness.
Liberty is better than slavery.
Prosperity is better than poverty.
Increasingly, a great deal of international surveys and research into values, happiness, etc has been done and the differences between cultures in terms of what they value can be quantified and qualified. Though some cultures have their quirks, what actually shows up is an immense amount of commonality in terms of the underlying values. A serious attempt at a classification produced these 24 internationally shared values:
I find such ongoing scientific research into cross-cultural values quite interesting. The work of Jonathan Haidt on the general subject is also quite interesting if you want to look into it.
But from the point of view of judging the morality of a person's actions, I think it is usually more useful to simply consider the view held by the person taking the action. Does the person taking the action believe they are bringing benefit or harm (or both in some combination, or neither) to others via their actions? For reasons of pragmatic convenience, if nothing else, I think that single question is the most useful definition of morality.
By locating the definition of 'benefit' or 'harm' in the mind of the person undertaking the action, it neatly sidesteps the need for theoretical impartial juries comprised of all nations of history, or of knowing the results of detailed international scientific analyses about cross-cultural values. It cuts right to what we usually want to know about an action: Was the person intending to hurt others, or intending to help others, or neither, or both? In this conception, "morality" is nothing but the question of whether any given interpersonal interaction was positive or negative in intent toward others in the mind of the actor.
Comment