All of Stephanie's Comments + Replies

Reading this thread has been fascinating. I'm perhaps naive & simplistic in my thinking but here are some of my thoughts.

  1. How does one decide between the lesser of two evils? Logic? Instinct? Emotion? How does one decide anything? For me, it depends on a variety of factors such as mood, fear, access to information, time, proximity to the situation, and the list goes on. Furthermore, I don't know that I am always consistent in how I decide. Is it really always a question of morality?
  2. I'm not sure how convinced I am regarding the effectiveness of m
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I think my behavior would be driven by needs alone. However, I have some doubts. Say I needed money and decided to steal. If the person I stole from needed the money more than I did and ended up hurting as a result, with or without a doctrine of wrong & right, wouldn't I still feel bad for causing someone else pain? Would I not therefore refrain from stealing from that person? Or are you saying that I would no longer react emotionally to the consequences of my actions? Are my feelings a result of a learned moral doctrine or something else?