You are right that tastes are a deciding factor, but you’re taking it too far. According to you it impossible to act unethically, and/or your personal ethics must be consistently determined by your actions. I can essentially behave entirely arbitrarily and to you I will be obeying my own true code of ethics.
A big part of what this site addresses is how humans are inconsistent, irrational, and self-deceiving and short-termist. Can we at least agree that there are moments when people take actions that are more inconsistent, irrational and self-deceiving and moments when their actions are better-harmonized with their stated/aspirational goals and beliefs?
And can we agree that if I believe, as most reasonable people to, that irrational anger is bad, yet I flip someone off in a bout of road rage, it’s possible I’m failing to live up to a consistent set of beliefs which I legitimately care about, rather than my stated beliefs being a veneer over my true, sometimes-road-raging beliefs?
And if you’ve ever been on a diet or known people on a diet, you know that circumstance and external factors (say, trainer or family support, distance to the nearest grocery store vs. nearest fast food place) make a huge difference on adherence, even when there’s no clear tie between those things and how correct the person believes the diet to be?
According to you it impossible to act unethically, and/or your personal ethics must be consistently determined by your actions. I can essentially behave entirely arbitrarily and to you I will be obeying my own true code of ethics.
Not at all. It’s certainly possible to act unethically, such as if you’re inconsistent, or if you have mistaken beliefs about what’s ethical. What you can’t do is intentionally do something while consciously thinking that it’s unethical. For example, you can’t think “I’ll torture these children, even though torturing children is wrong”—not if you believe that torturing children is wrong.
It is true that people are sometimes inconsistent because sometimes they act according to their habits instead of deliberately, or because strong emotions overwhelm them and they forget to do what they believe to be correct. But if that were the main explanation for why people don’t always do what they believe to be right, I would expect people to have the feeling of “Oops, I forgot! and messed up” more often than they seem to. Instead, something like “It’s wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway” seems to be more common, which implies that they don’t really think it’s wrong.
You are right that tastes are a deciding factor, but you’re taking it too far. According to you it impossible to act unethically, and/or your personal ethics must be consistently determined by your actions. I can essentially behave entirely arbitrarily and to you I will be obeying my own true code of ethics.
A big part of what this site addresses is how humans are inconsistent, irrational, and self-deceiving and short-termist. Can we at least agree that there are moments when people take actions that are more inconsistent, irrational and self-deceiving and moments when their actions are better-harmonized with their stated/aspirational goals and beliefs?
And can we agree that if I believe, as most reasonable people to, that irrational anger is bad, yet I flip someone off in a bout of road rage, it’s possible I’m failing to live up to a consistent set of beliefs which I legitimately care about, rather than my stated beliefs being a veneer over my true, sometimes-road-raging beliefs?
And if you’ve ever been on a diet or known people on a diet, you know that circumstance and external factors (say, trainer or family support, distance to the nearest grocery store vs. nearest fast food place) make a huge difference on adherence, even when there’s no clear tie between those things and how correct the person believes the diet to be?
Not at all. It’s certainly possible to act unethically, such as if you’re inconsistent, or if you have mistaken beliefs about what’s ethical. What you can’t do is intentionally do something while consciously thinking that it’s unethical. For example, you can’t think “I’ll torture these children, even though torturing children is wrong”—not if you believe that torturing children is wrong.
It is true that people are sometimes inconsistent because sometimes they act according to their habits instead of deliberately, or because strong emotions overwhelm them and they forget to do what they believe to be correct. But if that were the main explanation for why people don’t always do what they believe to be right, I would expect people to have the feeling of “Oops, I forgot! and messed up” more often than they seem to. Instead, something like “It’s wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway” seems to be more common, which implies that they don’t really think it’s wrong.