Archive for May, 2008
Xanga Featured Question: What makes someone a ‘good person’?
Xanga Featured Question: What makes someone a ‘good person’?
Doing ethics in philosophy at school equips me well to take a stab at this one. It seems to me that I could go ahead and list a set of characteristics that I would say make a good person. I could list selflessness, a desire to learn and understand, rationality and open-mindedness. But what am I doing here? I’m merely answering the question ‘what makes you think to yourself “that’s a good person”?’ and I’m not tackling the question posed. Can any of us answer it? Can we even attempt to make such a huge judgement? I don’t think so – we’re simply not qualified enough. Only an immortal who had lived forever (e.g. god, if there is one) would even begin to be in a position to answer this question. Even then, maybe they also need to have had the experience of not living forever in order to be unbiased and as close to objective as possible. It seems impossible. Of course, my global scepticism supports this view.
So why then would so many people jump to answer this one with ‘kindness, caring for others, passion for a good cause’ etc.? I’m not sure. But the view that I’m in tune with at the moment is Matt’s idea (philosophy friend) that in fact morality is merely an innate conservatism. Moral laws keep things the same, and humans are creatures of habit who don’t like change. We’re brought up with rules and regulations that ensure that people are comfortable and can predict what each other do. Heck, what sparks most discontent in our society – difference and chance. I’m not average. I’m bullied at school. Is this because I’ve done something wrong? No, it’s because I choose to do what I want to do for various reasons and this is out of the ordinary. The obvious response here is murder – surely this is not about conservatism? Yes it is – conserving life. That’s a bit weak but I hope you can see where my argument is coming from.
So when we express emotions all we’re doing is in some way expressing what we feel most comfortable with, and also what strikes up ‘pleasant emotions’ within us, most of the time. We’re expressing our approval of the behaviour of others because it seems right to us and deep down, whatever this actually is, it seems to me to be based on a desire to keep things predictable and to avoid a fear of the unknown. To return to the question then, I can offer a raft of arguments why I think that the properties I listed at the beginning make a good person. But all I’m actually doing really is expressing feelings I receive when I consider their behaviour, and I want others to do the same thing. Some form of emotivism, I think. But as I say, I’m far from any conclusions on this one and will continue to consider and discuss it.
This was written whilst full of cold and tired so forgive any ambiguities.
Xanga Featured Question: What are your plans for the summer?
A friend who uses Xanga to run their blog occasionally answers so-called Featured Questions, an idea that site has that supplies interesting questions to, theoretically, stimulate good writing. I thought I’d answer a few myself as this blog is getting a bit monotonous to update at times as it feels like writing a ship’s logbook.
Xanga Featured Question: What are your plans for the summer?
Goodness me I have a huge amount of these this year. There are so many things I want to catch up on, so many things I want to read, so many people I want to talk to. I’ve made myself a list, in fact, of things for the summer and am adding to it when I think of others. The problem is that it is only six weeks, which is somewhat limiting. So in terms of catching up, I want to get back into Wikimedia and freenode. I want to get back into answering press enquiries for the former, and just being around and being helpful for the latter. At present I am so inactive it is annoying as I can’t help these things I have been trusted with jobs in.
I have a lot of books and the like that I want to read. There are various bits of philosophy I want to understand, and I’ve ordered Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. I can just read away, and post things that I don’t understand to the fantastic Debate List community for help from others – I want to keep this list going as in the summer people do have more time to answer it. I’ve also got a pile of fiction to read, such as some of Tolkien’s non-LOTR books on Middle Earth. Then I’d like to do some background study in preperation for my application to Oxbridge; this likely means some sort of maths plus the above philosophy. So I have lots of learning that I would like to do that I simply don’t have time for at the moment. My parents think I should get a job this summer but I really don’t need any extra money as I hardly spend it and would much rather spend the time expanding my mind. Additionally, I have lots of games to buy and play on my recently-constructed computer. Various exciting worlds await.
My only concern here is of course to ensure that I use my time effectively. I am going to try and plan my time around Wikimedia/freenode, learning, and gaming as described above. Through all this I intend to try and tweet regularly, and try not to entirely lose touch with others via handy Internet tools, and of course there are various special events planned, like the Debating Matters final, and university open days. Let’s see how well I manage to do it all – after exams, and a few weeks of starting next year’s work.