The Basis of My Ethical Philosophy
The other week, Andrew wrote an excellent comment on my post about Pascal’s wager, ending with this:
By the by, plonkee, I’ve searched your site and I’ve found some references to your ethical philosophy, but nothing justifying it. I mention this because I thought it would be interesting to see a post on the one thing atheists should be talking most about - not whether a god or gods exist, but the foundations of an atheist moral and ethical philosophy.
It certainly will be a challenge to write about the foundations of my ethical philosophy as I’m not entirely sure whether I really have any foundations.
Starting from the beginning, one of the things that lead to my realisation that I was atheist was my decision to live my life without reference to god or gods. That is, to do the right thing, regardless of the teachings of any given religion.
I’d like to say that my essential philosophy is the Wiccan creed:
An it harm none, do as you will.
I’d like to say it was that - I really think that things are wrong when they harm someone else. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to live without adversely affecting someone, somewhere. And it doesn’t really address some of the more difficult ethical problems which are all about the competing needs of different people.
In fact, my self-declared definition of a successful life is if the world is better when I leave than it was when I arrived. Better to me, currently means that people are happier, more alive, less persecuted, more knowledgeable, and the world is a fairer and more peaceful place. This sounds like a pretty tall order, I’ll settle for better on average.
How does this influence me? Well, it means that in a really broad sense, I am pro-life. That is that I am generally opposed to violence of all forms, and I think that people should be given every opportunity to live meaningful and ordinary lives. I tend to see people everywhere as broadly the same, with the same needs and desires, and empathise with them all.
In my personal life, like pretty much everyone, I try to be nice, and obey the golden rule - to treat people as I would like to be treated. Politically, I am certainly a social liberal. I would probably be described as an advocate of social justice, and I am a member of Amnesty International, and I support fair trade and campaigns to end poverty.
I don’t think my ethical philosophy has or needs much of a basis. I am nothing special, like everyone else, I do my best.
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