Was never much Into philosophy, but i can't help but wonder how true it is that those base modalities wouldnt change, with even a small shift in the collective consensus of a world.
Consensus mostly comes down to justification. We can all agree - at least for the moment - that there are times when murder is justified. In self defense, for example. In defense of others. In defense of ideals, perhaps. But while we can justify it, while we can agree that no wrong was done, that consensus won't change reality. Murder is fundamentally wrong, and always will be, regardless of consensus.
And for the most part I agree. I'm just saying that we are the ones who have defined what is and is not moral, so it stands to reason that those morals can be changed if a great enough consensus agrees.
And I'm saying the core of morality is more fundamental than that. The whole world can collectively agree the sky looks a wee bit more red than blue and it won't make it so. At least not for most of the day.
Err. We can build our society around ritual combat to the death and socially perceive killing your opponent as perfectly normal and expected behavior. But some people at least, (literally everyone, barring physiological flaws, I'd like to believe), are going to feel like they've done something wrong when they do. Because they have. And it's that simple.
Ofc, I'm not saying that'd be their predominant feeling or that they wouldn't brush that aside fairly quickly. In a society like that, they probably would. It'd be a rare, rare person who took that feeling and ran with it.
Think that's where we will have to agree to disagree. I have a hard time believing that a culture based on might equates right would have the same base morals as those of a more diplomatic culture or those that were wholly pacifistic.
From my viewpoint, morals are like a newtonian fluid, in some instances solid, while in others they can every bit as free flowing as tap water. It all depends on the forces exerted on it.
--edit--
Whoops! That should be non-Newtonian fluids....
Imo there's some basic morals pre-programmed into human psyche. Propensity towards non-violence and protecting the weak are foremost among them. A human society may lean towards might and violence in certain circumstances, but it will come out of it eventually. What are morals? Nothing, but some basic codes that will help keeping humans together in a coherent social structure.
Any of you ever saw the scene of public execution in A Tale of Two Cities? There are times when such things become common in a society, but eventually it comes out of it.
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