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Single Idea 7410
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / j. Ethics by convention
]
Full Idea
If men are their own judges of what conduces to their preservation, ..all men make different decisions about what counts as a danger, so (for Hobbes) the grimmest version of ethical relativism seems to be the only possible ethical vision.
Gist of Idea
Self-preservation is basic, and people judge differently about that, implying ethical relativism
Source
report of Thomas Hobbes (The Elements of Law [1640]) by Richard Tuck - Hobbes Ch.2
Book Ref
Tuck,Richard: 'Hobbes: a very short introduction' [OUP 2002], p.74
A Reaction
This might depend on self-preservation being the only fundamental value. But if self-preservation is not a pressing issue, presumably other values might come into play, some of them less concerned with the individual's own interests.
The
29 ideas
with the same theme
[morals as social rules, rather than private or true]:
6017
|
Nomos is king
[Pindar]
|
6016
|
Early sophists thought convention improved nature; later they said nature was diminished by it
[Protagoras, by Miller,FD]
|
536
|
We should follow the law in public, and nature in private
[Antiphon]
|
1557
|
To gain the greatest advantage only treat law as important when other people are present
[Antiphon]
|
5070
|
Socrates conservatively assumed that Athenian conventions were natural and true
[Taylor,R on Socrates]
|
1563
|
Every apparent crime can be right in certain circumstances
[Anon (Diss), by PG]
|
2173
|
As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul
[Williams,B on Plato]
|
5071
|
The Cynics rejected what is conventional as irrational, and aimed to live by nature
[Taylor,R on Diogenes of Sin.]
|
3024
|
Cyrenaics teach that honour, justice and shame are all based on custom and fashion
[Aristippus young, by Diog. Laertius]
|
5075
|
Aristotle said there are two levels of virtue - the conventional and the intellectual
[Taylor,R on Aristotle]
|
21
|
Moral acts are so varied that they must be convention, not nature
[Aristotle]
|
2807
|
Some say slavery is unnatural and created by convention, and is therefore forced, and unjust
[Aristotle]
|
5855
|
We all feel universal right and wrong, independent of any community or contracts
[Aristotle]
|
3045
|
Stoics say justice is a part of nature, not just an invented principle
[Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
|
13325
|
Trouble in life comes from copying other people, which is following convention instead of reason
[Seneca]
|
1477
|
Being manly and brave is the result of convention, not of human nature
[Plutarch]
|
7410
|
Self-preservation is basic, and people judge differently about that, implying ethical relativism
[Hobbes, by Tuck]
|
2368
|
Men's natural desires are no sin, and neither are their actions, until law makes it so
[Hobbes]
|
6680
|
It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river
[Pascal]
|
19956
|
True goodness is political, and consists of love of and submission to the laws
[Montesquieu]
|
9750
|
We must only value what others find acceptable
[Kant, by Korsgaard]
|
21998
|
Bourgeois interests create our morality, law and religion
[Marx/Engels]
|
23874
|
Armies and businesses create moralities in which their activity can do no wrong
[Marx, by Weil]
|
2875
|
That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil
[Nietzsche]
|
22471
|
Nietzsche thought it 'childish' to say morality isn't binding because it varies between cultures
[Nietzsche, by Foot]
|
23879
|
In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality
[Weil]
|
15672
|
Actions norms are only valid if everyone possibly affected is involved in the discourse
[Habermas]
|
8002
|
Sophists don't distinguish a person outside one social order from someone outside all order
[MacIntyre]
|
20174
|
Relativists say all values are relative; pluralists concede much of that, but not 'human' values
[Kekes]
|