Do what feels good?
Published July 21st, 2008I would like to hear the logical demonstrations of why mass-murderer and “do what feels good” moral systems are invalid. Thanks.
I’d say that’s not too hard.
My 2Q system for testing whether a philosophy is valid says to ask, “Would I condemn another for reasoning as I do.” If I reason that mass murder is okay, then I cannot condemn someone else who commits mass murder, even if I am one of his victims. I need to be able to say it is wrong for someone to murder me, so I cannot logically hold that mass murder is allowable.
I’d use the same reasoning for “do what feels good.” There are certainly many things that someone might do that would feel good to them but that I want to condemn (raping me, for example). If I might condemn someone else for doing something simply because it feels good, then I can not use good feelings alone to justify my own actions.
rhiesa on October 3, 2008
That’s like Kantian universality of moral claims. You can’t set a moral claim if it would change aspects of reality, moral claims have to adhere to current conditions. Like you said, if you agree with mass murder, then you should be fine with being murdered, but all people will not make a rational/reasoned claim that murder is acceptable so therefor it isn’t universal.