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Ideas for 'The Sayings of Confucius', 'Could a computer ever understand?' and 'Morality and Art'

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4 ideas

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / b. Defining ethics
22445 Morality shows murder is wrong, but not what counts as a murder [Foot]
     Full Idea: While one can determine from the concept of morality that there is an objection to murder one cannot determine completely what will count as murder.
     From: Philippa Foot (Morality and Art [1972], p.7)
     A reaction: She then refers to abortion, but there are military and criminal problem cases, and killings by neglect or side effect.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / c. Purpose of ethics
22444 A moral system must deal with the dangers and benefits of life [Foot]
     Full Idea: A moral system seems necessarily to be one aimed at removing particular dangers and securing certain benefits.
     From: Philippa Foot (Morality and Art [1972], p.6)
     A reaction: I thoroughly approve of this approach to morality, which anchors it in real life, rather than in ideals or principles of reason.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / h. Against ethics
7358 All men prefer outward appearance to true excellence [Kongzi (Confucius)]
     Full Idea: I have yet to meet a man as fond of excellence as he is of outward appearances.
     From: Kongzi (Confucius) (The Analects (Lunyu) [c.511 BCE], IX.18)
     A reaction: Interestingly, this cynical view of the love of virtue is put by Plato into the mouths of Glaucon and Adeimantus (in Bk II of 'Republic', e.g. Idea 12), and not into the mouth of Socrates, who goes on to defend the possibility of true virtue.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature
7362 Humans are similar, but social conventions drive us apart (sages and idiots being the exceptions) [Kongzi (Confucius)]
     Full Idea: In our natures we approximate one another; habits put us further and further apart. The only ones who do not change are sages and idiots.
     From: Kongzi (Confucius) (The Analects (Lunyu) [c.511 BCE], XVII.2)
     A reaction: I find most of Confucius rather uninteresting, but this is a splendid remark about the influence of social conventions on human nature. Sages can achieve universal morality if they rise above social convention, and seek the true virtues of human nature.