   Ambiguous ethics
  So... I've noticed that several posts on this board lately have something to do with ethics in one way or another.  So I'm here to open myself up to ridicule and other unpleasantries by spouting off some stuff that's been building up in my head lately (by 'lately,' I mean 'within the last several years').I'm from the US.  Thus, the political system that I'm most familiar with is that of the United States, though to be honest, I'm not even very familiar with this one.  So I can't speak for what goes on in other countries.  I'm not going to say stuff like:  We're a republic so we have more freedoms than you.  If I begin to make generalizations like this, someone should slap me.  Please.  I promise I'll try to keep an open mind.So... I know quite a few people who have quite a few different ideas about what is ethical and what is not.  But it seems like as much as we (and by 'we' I mean the people of the US, though feel free to apply it to your own locale if you feel the same way) like to think we have open minds and see people as equal, we don't.I've never been fond of so-called 'affirmative action.'  I'm not even going to get into the reasons, since they're not part of the question I'm trying to discuss here.  But I will say that I think than most of the un-equality that we express is in forms more subtle than we may even realize.  I don't think that they're necessarily even targeted at a specific race of people, gender or any other category.  I'm not quite sure how to describe exactly what I'm trying to say here.Recently, a few of the debates spawned in the US have had me a bit upset, because I felt that people were being closed-minded to other points of view.  Thinking more about it, though, I realized thai I myself am being closed-minded by suggesting that the process these people use to determine their own ethical values is somehow flawed.  How does one deal with this problem?  EDIT:  Am I just asking these things to try to appear 'deep?'How does one decide how to judge someone else's ethics?  Do we even have a right to do so?  Do we have the right not to?  Can we remain undecided, or is that bad too?  Is there even such a thing as good and bad?  Are these even important questions, or is the whole line of thought a complete waste of time?What I want to know is:  How do people deal with questions like these?  I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just trying to get another opinion or ten, and maybe refine my own view of the subject.Thoughts?[edited by - null_void on February 12, 2004 12:59:40 PM]
  Well, you have   to have at least a basic ethical system just to function in society.  If you never made decisions about anything, well, you''d hardly be a functional human being.I myself accept the fact that everything I consider will be judged from my perspective.  I can''t truly judge anything from anyone else''s perspective.  I can speculate about their perspective, but that''s still my perspective, not theirs.  Thus, after giving an idea thorough consideration (and it is up to myself, and myself alone, to determine what "thorough" is), I go ahead and make a decision on the issue, and stick with it until new information is presented.  I feel that I''ve made the best choice I am capable of making at that moment in my life, and don''t regret the decision.  If I realize later on that a different choice would have been better, I still recognize that at the time the choice was made, it seemed as good or better than any other choice, and I can''t blame myself for making it.So when comparing my ethical system to another''s, I consider both, but eventually (the sooner, the better), I''ll have to form an opinion.  And when I do, am remain confident of that opinion, until something changes.  If I was not confident, I feel that I would be less capable of living life the way I desire.  So it is out of near-necessity that I go ahead and make somewhat final decisions on matters.As for what my ethical system is, in a nutshell, I''m an egoist.  Something is good if I feel that it does or will benefit me.  Something is bad if I feel that doesn''t, or won''t.  Sometimes I am wrong, of course, and what I thought would be good for me isn''t, but that''s because of ignorance, not a flawed ethical system (in my opinion, at least).  When living in society, it most often happens that what is good for one person is also good for the majority.  But "what is best for the majority" is not my rule.  It all boils down to what is best for me.  Call me selfish, but I feel that this is at the root of human actions, and denying it would make me feel like I was denying the truth. 