[lbo-talk] Blue Dogs cashing in

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sun Jul 26 05:00:06 PDT 2009


Michael Smith wrote:
>
> What may be confusing Carrol, and is certainly confusing me, is
> this: what does "morality" mean to you if not "abstract universal
> principles"? Most of the philosophy of morals consists of trying
> to find a basis for such principles -- and it hasn't been a shining
> success.

I think non-abstract non-universal moral principles mean a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I suppose such private principles can, possibly, be derived from vulgar liberalism: "Do as you please as long as you don't hurt others." But that would get confusing since in practice moral principles are only fun if you can use them to point a finger at those who don't live up to those "non-universal" principles which don't apply to those who don't follow them. As you say, it's a bit confusing. If P's non-universal moral principle only applies to P and friends, it seems a trifle odd for them to go around objecting to Q's failure to follow the non-universal principle which because it is non-universal doesn't apply to him/her, so why should he/she follow it?

Carrol



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