How do you evaluate your actions as proper or improper, good or bad, right or wrong?
I don’t fully understand how I tell good from bad. A query goes in, an answer pops out in the form of a feeling. Many of the criteria probably come from my parents, from reading books, and from pleasant/unpleasant interactions with other people. I can’t boil it down to any small set of rules that would answer every moral question without applying actual moral sense, and I don’t believe anyone else can.
It’s easier to give a diff, to specify how my moral sense differs from that of other people I know. The main difference I see is that some years ago I deeply internalized the content of Games People Play) and as a result I never demonstrate to anyone that I feel bad about something—I now consider this a grossly immoral act. On the other hand, I cheat on women a lot and don’t care too much about that. In other respects I see myself as morally average.
I don’t fully understand how I tell good from bad. A query goes in, an answer pops out in the form of a feeling. Many of the criteria probably come from my parents, from reading books, and from pleasant/unpleasant interactions with other people. I can’t boil it down to any small set of rules that would answer every moral question without applying actual moral sense, and I don’t believe anyone else can.
It’s easier to give a diff, to specify how my moral sense differs from that of other people I know. The main difference I see is that some years ago I deeply internalized the content of Games People Play) and as a result I never demonstrate to anyone that I feel bad about something—I now consider this a grossly immoral act. On the other hand, I cheat on women a lot and don’t care too much about that. In other respects I see myself as morally average.
How has not demonstrating to people that you feel bad about something worked out for you?
Very well. It attracts people.