In my recent investigations into pragmatism,
I have time to think about the consequences of
our thinking and actions..
To wit: there are no absolute statements or thoughts…
one might say, as an absolute, that all men die…
and yet in fact, we can’t prove this… we would have to
know about every single human that has lived and has since
died… this is information we simply cannot know…
‘‘that all human beings die’’ is not a truth… speculation perhaps,
but nothing more…in the universe there is no absolute truth…
there is a god… again, there is no proof for this…
it is speculation, nothing more…
‘‘Scientific truths’’ are subject to revision, every single scientific
theory we have, is subject to revision… indeed, we can guess
that every single scientific theory can in fact, can be totally overthrown,
discarded if, IF, new facts come in to show us that the latest theory
is garbage… In fact, given this, we could, come to the conclusion
that evolution is wrong… we could, if new evidence or facts come
to light that changes the theory…
We could hold to the theory that all life on earth, and that is
the only evidence of life we have, that all life on earth was
brought here by Aliens…we were, planted, shall we say…
in essence, we replace god with aliens… the bible could be
a religious discussion of what happened scientifically…
and god/aliens said, let us bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself,
upon the earth: and it was so…
within every single passage thereafter, one can simple replace
god with aliens and the passage still works…
and god/alien said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea…
So, god created man in his image, in the image of god, create he him;
male and female created he them…
In fact, reading this, one could make the argument that these passages
better fits an alien idea of the creator rather than a god…
alien conspiracy theories better fit the beginning of existence
than religious theories…
as it been said before, advance science looks a lot like magic
to the average person…
So, to return, we have no such thing as absolutes…
certainly not in science, and certainly not in religious thoughts..
So, given this, we have no such thing as absolute morality or
morals given by a god that is complete and absolute…
and that is in fact, better for us as human beings…
for one size fits all ethics/morals fails to understand
all the possibilities given within human existence…
one size fits all ethics cannot possible cover all the
nuances of human behavior… and the law, as written
recognizes this, give how many exceptions that are listed
within the law… this is legal unless this happens and then it
is illegal… for example, murder is wrong, unless it is self-defense,
or committed by a police officer doing their ‘‘duty’’…
in fact, every single law written has exceptions within it,
that is the very nature of the law…there are no absolutes
within the law…everything has an exception…
This is the bottom line of life, that there are no absolutes within it…
Next, that there are no theories that can incorporate all aspects
needed to explain the theory… in other words, no matter how hard
we try to create a ‘‘theory of everything’’ we cannot, because no matter
how hard we try, we cannot know every aspect of the why that theory works..
so, for example, we want a theory of human behavior… but
we cannot list or know every single aspect that impacts human
behavior… we will miss quite a bit in knowing what really drives
human behavior… and in missing that part, it means we are unable
to create or find a theory that will cover all aspects of human behavior…
or to state this a different way… any theory we create, will be,
incomplete.. we cannot, no matter how hard we try, we cannot
discover all the aspects of human behavior, or any theory is
better understood by what is missing, rather than what is there…
every single theory that we have is incomplete, lacking some
facts or evidence because we are unable to expand our
parameters far enough to catch all aspects of any theory
or idea…at all times, we are dealing with partial aspects
of any idea or theory… we will never get the entire or whole
picture of anything we know, do, or believe in… we deal with
some of the information possible, not all the information possible…
thus, our theories have problems because we cannot incorporate
enough facts to make sense of any theory of existence…
This incompleteness of our theories isn’t just a quark of
about theories, but the core aspect of all theories…
they are incomplete no matter how hard we try to fill in
the blanks…
and in part, this is why we can’t hold to absolute theories
like ethical theories… they are, by definition, incomplete…
and we cannot hold incomplete theories as factual because
they are missing too much information to make judgments
about them…
Thus judgement such as ‘‘thou shall not murder’’ cannot
be defined unless we put some context within it…
one cannot attack and murder another without some
reason or context… and as there are plenty of
exceptions to the ‘‘thou shall not murder’’ as to make
it more like a guide instead of an absolute rule…
we must give any actions, such as murder, some sort
of context for us to make sense of it…
Now given there are no absolutes, everything we
hold true, must be given some sort of context for it to make
sense… so, any rules, laws, values can only make sense
within some sort of context… so, the statement,
‘‘Liberals are evil’’ cannot be true unless it is given some
sort of context… so, one can say, ‘‘liberals are evil’’
because god says so… once again, we need context,
so, how does god, (whose very existence is doubtful)
how does god and the bible, which is allegedly his word,
tell us about liberals? again, one must then name chapter
and verse for us to look at, to make some sort of context
for the statement, ‘‘god believes that liberals are evil’’
if there is no context, there is no useful statement for us
to engage with… it is only by creating context, that
we can understand this statement, "liberals are evil’’
now recall, I said there are no absolutes statements…
and the statement ‘‘liberals are evil’’ is an absolute
statement, given without context… and thus not
a valid statement… it is without context thus not
a valid statement… and as every single theory is
incomplete, by definition, every single theory/statement
is incomplete, and every theory/statement needs context
to even be understood, we can state that human speech
is basically one designed to state our emotions and feelings,
not dealing with facts or evidence…
I might make the statement, ‘‘I am mad’’ and that statement
is still missing/lacking context… thus until I further give that
statement context, mad at who, what, why, when, where and how,
the statement, ‘‘I am mad’’ is incomplete and invalid…
and therein lies the part of the problem with human communication…
it is incomplete and fails to incorporate all aspects needed to
make knowledge possible… we are left with incomplete
information and context to make communication impossible…
and thus much of the human struggles we face on a daily basis,
lies within our failure to make our statements with some context,
and our failure to understand that our statements, all
statements, are by definition, incomplete…
If I were to make a statement, ‘‘love is what makes the world
go around’’ we run into the problem that plagues most
communications, that of definitions… that there is a universal
word, like love, but as their are no universal, one size fits all
definition of love, we are not dealing with specifics, but
generalities… for love can have many, vastly different
definitions, and within that, I love, or think of love,
differently than you do… for the idea of love is also,
and most definitely based on one’s individual idea of love…
and some of the many conditions that define love, come
from our own history and indoctrinations… as a man,
I view love differently than a woman does, as a man being
67 years old, I view love differently than a much younger
person would… I view love within the context of my life
and experiences…it is not theory to me, but actual practice
as I love my wife of 30 years…
so, definitions don’t have a universal, one size fits all
definition… and given the way human beings work/operate,
we will never have a universal, one size fits all definition of anything…
we can’t…as my idea of love is tied up into my experiences and
context of my own life…just as is your definition of love is tied up in
your own experiences and context…
and I have read elsewhere, that part of the problem with
philosophy, has been it hasn’t changed or grown since
the age of Plato… 2500 years ago… and philosophy
is still dicking around with words and values suggested
by Plato… and why hasn’t philosophy been ‘‘universalized’’,
having one size fits all philosophy? Because for the reasons,
I stated, Philosophy is not and cannot ever be ‘‘universalized’’
or turned into ‘‘one size fits all’’…
Thus, seeking out a universal, one size fits all philosophy is
not worth the effort because it is not possible…
all philosophy is personal and individual…
and what does this mean for ideas like ethics/ morality?
Kropotkin