Quote for the week

[lathany]

"Compassion is the basis of all morality." - Arthur Schopenhauer

Hmm. Maybe. I feel this one wants proof though.

Comments

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I do actually know of at least one person - who I would regard as both moral and ethical - who I'm pretty certain is almost entirely lacking in emotional empathy.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. The more I think about it, the more I feel you can reach morality through fairness of the "do as you would be done by" variety.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yup. In fact even beyond "do as you would be done by" there are other systems where particular behaviour is bad for an individual and good for the system which could lead individuals to do it for moral reasons.

Stealing from large institutions, for example, would very seldom be ruled out by "compassion". And yet not everyone steals the office biros.