re societal basis for morality in article apr cnsvax uwec edu nyeda cnsvax uwec edu david nye writes you asked me to look over here but i was on my way back anyway reply to cobb alexia lis uiuc edu mike cobb if morals come from what is societally accepted why follow that what right do we have to expect others to follow our notion of societally mandated morality pardon the extremism but couldn t i murder your brother and say that i was exercising my rights as i saw them was doing what felt good didn t want anyone forcing their morality on me or i don t follow your morality i believe that morality is subjective each person is entitled to his own moral attitudes mine are not a priori more correct than someone elses this does not mean however that i must judge another on the basis of his rather than my moral standards while he is entitled to believe what his own moral sense tells him the rest of society is entitled to pass laws spelling out punishments for behavior that is offensive to the majority why your last statement why by which authority most criminals do not see their behavior as moral the may realize that it is immoral and not care they are thus not following their own moral system but being immoral for someone to lay claim to an alternative moral system he must be sincere in his belief in it and it must be internally consistent why your last statement why are these things necessary and believe me a belief in terrorism can be both sincere and frighteningly consistent some sociopaths lack an innate moral sense and thus may be incapable of behaving morally while someone like hitler may have believed that his actions were moral we may judge him immoral by our standards holding that morality is subjective does not mean that we must excuse the murderer trouble is this would sound just fine coming from someone like hitler too i do not mean any comparison or offence david try substituting the social minority of your choice for sociopath hitler and murderer no logical difference someone like you vs someone like hitler zero sum frank o dwyer i m not hatching that odwyer sse ie from hens by evelyn conlon
