Why don't we kill or steal? Because it is wrong. Why it is wrong? Because society can’t coexist, or killing/stealing hurts the living. But if the premise for not killing is human rational what happens when killing becomes rational? Take Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, or the guy whose wife was cheating on him. Each one of them claimed good (to the extent many other "rational" individuals bought into it), perhaps rational reasons to kill.
Perhaps it boils down to "we don’t kill unless we are allowed to either by our position of power, personal rational, or physiological need". But for the people out there that want to establish clauses like not killing or stealing permanently, what principles can we employ that will ensure the peace?
Yet if we are to find one universal principle that all humanity follows we need that principle to be nonhuman. After all, as the post modernist would contend, the only truth that is universal is that each individual has their own unique truth. Because humanity is inherently subjective, individuals, and I would argue communities, are unable to remove themselves completely from their empirical past. It would seem then, that there is no source for or of universal truth.
Is humanity then doomed to experience murder, and even genocide? Or is it that murder is in fact a natural occurrence that is as integral to the human as subjectivity or passion?
On the other hand if there is an entity that is nonhuman, and this amorphous being is infinite, and because it is infinite it is also eminently objective (because it is aware of every idea and experience and is not restrained by time so it also understands consequences). Can this entity be the universal source of the truth, a truth that is beyond human intervention?
If we accept this all powerful entity, are we also simultaneously relinquishing control of our own destiny?
Accepting this omnipotent presence is especially ominous and frankly scares me. Imagine that the maxim “nothing stands in the way of will” is and always was another human delusion?
(This point rests on the premise that free-choice and providence as irreconcilable. This will be discussed in the future but it is imperative to understand the deeper implications at the heart of debate around murder).
At least, though, it may offer a theoretical perspective as to why we need a higher nonhuman source, whether imagined or real.
A mirage that emphatically and objectively declares “it” is the reason why we don’t kill.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment