it is, of course, a travesty to a pragmatist like myself that we now live in an era where moral reasoning has become more prevalent than building moral character. how are we so lost that not only do we see no problem in the classic trolley problem (that the very construction of it reduces the need to build moral character in aristotelian sense), we encourage the development of such a skill?
the revelation that logic can be applied to ethics is as white as snow—since the beginning of western philosophy, philosophers have applied the use of reason to differentiate between the moral and the immoral. i blame kant, however, for popularizing that reason alone can birth ethical principles--that we may, in a case such as the trolley problem, rely entirely upon our reason to inform how we act. Reason has now become the subject (which Nietzsche takes to an entirely new level), ethics the object; whereas (largely) pre-Kant, ethics was the subject of which reason was applies not to discover but to mould.
polyglotky t1_iymjxur wrote
Reply to How to solve moral problems with formal logic and probability by beforesunset1010
it is, of course, a travesty to a pragmatist like myself that we now live in an era where moral reasoning has become more prevalent than building moral character. how are we so lost that not only do we see no problem in the classic trolley problem (that the very construction of it reduces the need to build moral character in aristotelian sense), we encourage the development of such a skill?
the revelation that logic can be applied to ethics is as white as snow—since the beginning of western philosophy, philosophers have applied the use of reason to differentiate between the moral and the immoral. i blame kant, however, for popularizing that reason alone can birth ethical principles--that we may, in a case such as the trolley problem, rely entirely upon our reason to inform how we act. Reason has now become the subject (which Nietzsche takes to an entirely new level), ethics the object; whereas (largely) pre-Kant, ethics was the subject of which reason was applies not to discover but to mould.