RE: Absolute Right and Wrong

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Nov 22 2002 - 18:00:14 MST


John Clark writes

> If I think that 2 + 2 = 5 or that Paris is the capital of Italy then I am
> wrong in the sense of being incorrect, but if I enjoy murdering people in
> horrific ways it is not at all clear what objective fact I am confused
> about.

Absolutely correct :-) and I agree with your other remarks
 
> But in the final analyses who gives a damn? Even if you were to come up
> with a logically impeccable proof that inflicting torture is a wonderful
> "objective virtue" I'm still not going to start killing innocent people
> because subjective virtue is far more important than objective virtue.

Yes, but starting to go off the beam here just a tad.

> Seeing people in pain makes me unhappy, that is a fact, and if I am the
> source of that pain then I'm even more unhappy, so I won't do it.
> End of story.

Yes, to repeat, it is a FACT that seeing people in pain
makes John Clark unhappy.

> It is a subjective fact that John K Clark finds that
> inflicting pain on others is totally unacceptable.

IT IS NOT! You just got through admitting that it was a FACT,
i.e., and objective fact, that John Clark doesn't like to see
people in pain. So what the devil is a "subjective fact" anyway?

> If you tell me that is just an objective fact then that's
> a huge downgrade. I'm more important.

I really don't understand. What are you saying here?

Lee



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