Spin -Off.....Aspie rule follower VS anti-authoritarian

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I disagree. The observance of cause/effect relations is the only valid basis for morality. All other attempts at arriving at moral principles tend to involve people either trumpeting their own prejudices as universal principle (while unable to offer any evidence that this is so) or arguing about what one or more mythological beings must want. Neither is satisfactory.

For example, is mugging someone for beer money a morally correct action?

Someone who argues based on mythology - "No, you'll go to Hell for that!"

Someone who argues based on "universal principle" - "No, because stealing is wrong!" (Ask them, "But what about a mother who steals food to feed her starving children?" and watch them start hemming and hawing... lol.)

Someone who observes logical cause/effect - "No, because if everyone starts acting this way, civilized society will become impossible to maintain."

This latter position is the only one which holds any logical merit.

Last edited by Hazelwudi on 24 Sep 2006, 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

wow

That's deontology rather than consequentialism. Under consequentialism/utilitarianism, one can say, "It is permissable to let this one child be tortured if it ensures the well-being of a whole community," and the position holds under the premises of the that system. This is why utilitarianism and peebo's more egoistic consequentialism are usually rejected (utilitarianism usually gets heavy modifications and exceptions to deflect such arguments against it).

A rights-based morality works similarly. It is impermissable to copy a creator's intellectual property without permission because it deprives the creator of a livelihood analogously to how stealing a boat from a shipwright deprives the shipwright of his or her livelihood because, if it were permissable to deprive people of their livelihood, it would be impossible for anyone to maintain their livelihood. Thus a right exists. Egoists, like peebo, make the exception that what holds for others does not necessarily hold for me. And thus the social condemnations against egoism (through criminal law and informal social ostracization).

A lot of musical artist would disagree with this as they make most of their money from concerts. Some of them even consider the downloading of free music as advertising, if you really like their stuff it will make you want to go to their shows.

Also I have heard that despite illegal downloading record sells haven’t dropped a bit.

ARGH!! ! After reading all that I'm having to pick bits of my brain off the walls after it exploded due to the information... and even then I skipped some parts!

Here's another question for you two to argue about: If you download an illegal copy of a song off the internet, and then you receive/buy a legal copy of the song and get rid of the downloaded one, would you still be in trouble?

AND, is it okay you make a personal compilation CD using a burning program as long as it's for personal use only? If not then I'm in the longdrop, I've got several MP3 CDs with over 12 hours of music each on them!