My somewhat moral nature
Apr. 16th, 2018 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcInasmuch as I have a moral code at all it is not at all thought through: mostly I am guided by intuitive opinions that come fully formed to my mind. In recent weeks I have been presented with more and different moral choices than usual, offering opportunity to observe my own behavior and look for patterns and contradictions in it that provide clues about the nature of my own conscience.
I do indeed find myself bound by some kind of ruleset because even without coercion I find myself acting against my own interests or pleasure in instead doing what I think I ought. However, I am essentially atheist and do not expect any post-mortem reckoning nor is it central to me to build my own moral character. While I freely choose to do some good I also choose against other good.
My current working hypothesis is that what does guide me is a sense of how things are supposed to be: how I think society should work or what I believe is intended by those who allow or disallow me some action. Not everything is thus explained and my actions are probably somehow morally inconsistent or incoherent, yet I suspect that I must be buying into an almost contractual idea wherein I naturally bow to some notion of duty to other entities according not only to what my relationship is with them but also my concept of the spirit of that relationship's background.
Simply: interpersonally I try to meet others' reasonable expectations and do right by them; in some cases I expect that interaction to be mediated by a larger social contract. There is probably a fancy philosophical word for this approach but I do not know what. I suppose that I am fairly conventional in this and
I do indeed find myself bound by some kind of ruleset because even without coercion I find myself acting against my own interests or pleasure in instead doing what I think I ought. However, I am essentially atheist and do not expect any post-mortem reckoning nor is it central to me to build my own moral character. While I freely choose to do some good I also choose against other good.
My current working hypothesis is that what does guide me is a sense of how things are supposed to be: how I think society should work or what I believe is intended by those who allow or disallow me some action. Not everything is thus explained and my actions are probably somehow morally inconsistent or incoherent, yet I suspect that I must be buying into an almost contractual idea wherein I naturally bow to some notion of duty to other entities according not only to what my relationship is with them but also my concept of the spirit of that relationship's background.
Simply: interpersonally I try to meet others' reasonable expectations and do right by them; in some cases I expect that interaction to be mediated by a larger social contract. There is probably a fancy philosophical word for this approach but I do not know what. I suppose that I am fairly conventional in this and
reasonableis a large rug under which to brush much detail. The interesting discovery for me is that this way of thinking may be the principal principle guiding my moral choices.
