Morality

[Danny]

I've just started reading Plato's Republic, a book that deals in particular with the nature of morality.

Early on in the book, Plato states, through Socrates, that a moral person cannot harm another person, regardless of whether they are good or bad, because he claims that doing so will make an immoral person increasingly immoral, and that someone who is moral cannot make someone immoral in the same way that a musician cannot make someone unmusical, or that someone who is artistic cannot make someone un-artistic.
In effect, causing someone to become immoral is in itself immoral.

What do you guys feel about this? Especially in relation to the nature of morality, do you think that morality is an invention devised by mankind, or that it exists independantly of the human phsyche?

[EveningStar]

Good grief...so many books have been written on this topic that it hardly seems we can add much to the mix.

There is but one comment I feel moved to make at this time. Which is to say that I believe all created things have a proper mode of operation for which they were designed. Certainly there are alternative uses for mundane objects...like using a kitchen knife as a screwdriver...but they do not function well outside their normal method of operation.

Some things, such as sexuality, once did not exist at all. We mortals must replace ourselves, and to make sure we did, sexuality was designed to ensure genetic endowments would disperse through the population rather than branch off in bizzare directions and flame out. To make sure it happened, and to provide a special sort of closeness to give life spice, the process was made a pleasant one. But still, once, it was merely an idea, a set of blueprints. So where does the "icky" factor come in? When it is misused. Much like ending up with a kitchen drawer full of bent-tipped silverware that wasn't especially good at undoing wood screws. When the original manufacturer's instructions for use were not followed.

Human life is like a well-oiled machine, or it is like a clunker pawned off by a sharpster used car salesman. The difference is whether the item was used or abused, properly maintained or neglected, respected or trashed.

Consider that well.