Can you picture what makes sense to you changing?Kenny wrote:The metric I use is what makes sense to me.patrick wrote:Kenny, what do you think of social contractarianism?Kenny wrote:If you told me (for example) rape were wrong, in theory if I were a sick “#@*/!!” I could disagree with you and claim rape is good, and if you were the type who believes all human opinions are equal, you would have no way of proving your opinion is any better than mine; we’re just two people who disagree.
Or put another way, what metric are you using to gauge which opinion is "better" ? Cause I'm assuming you don't really think "rape is good" is a valid opinion.
Consider, for example, the group of soldiers raping women. It wasn't just limited to Vikings, or "the enemy" side, but no doubt American, Australian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and the like all have done it. It doesn't matter which side of the coin they're on, I'm sure all sides have done horrible acts. It may not be just in war, but I'll pursue this line of thought because I think I can psycho-analyse such better as an example.
Many of these same soldiers, in a normal civilised environment would have answered raping is never good because it makes sense to them. Yet, in changing conditions, the bar of what becomes normal and acceptable gets dropped so far down in senselessness that raping perhaps seems like nothing. Seeing the horrors of the world, your mates and innocent people torn to bits, the absolute devaluing of human life, realities of how harsh our world can be, such values end up (I assume) becoming so meaningless that what's it even matter.
So, you have the many cases we often hear about, with soldiers who may have been once very morally good men, their opinion of raping changes. These "values" we might accept under more normal conditions, mean nothing when faced with extremely horrible conditions where death is everywhere, you see babies shredded or the like in shrapnel, perhaps even initially accidentally killing a few people yourself caught in crossfire.
I suppose a main point I'm getting at, is if "what makes sense" is the metric, then when nothing makes sense, don't you suppose such values would also mean nothing?