Moral absolutes? Lying, in this case.
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Moral absolutes? Lying, in this case.
But killing someone, for example... you can't say it's always wrong, because what about self-defense?
Let's start a discussion about lying. Do you all think it's always right, always wrong, or sometimes right or wrong, depending upon the individual circumstance? Do you have a definition of lying as being different from fibbing, stretching the truth, etc.?
There's this scene where the reporter asks Leah about her experience, and she says she doesn't want to teach her kids to lie. And she launches into her near-death experience, which the reporter clearly doesn't believe a word of.
I personally think that she could have been discreet and not shared the experience, but it wouldn't have morally corrupted her sons. It would have taught them that sometimes you don't share the whole story with just anyone.
Thoughts?
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Yeah, I agree--in fact, you've made me realize that we have certain lies built into our culture. Like when you're leading someone to their surprise party--you have to lie!!
I guess that morality--right and wrong--can lie outside of the lies?
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Good question. I agree with you regarding the scene where the reporter questions Leah. In that particular case, I think her children would have understood if she didn't shared her near-death experience. Also, if she didn't want to lie, she could have just told the reporter she didn't want to talk about her experience to the media.zeldas_lullaby wrote:The author discusses moral absolutes in one of the philosophy class scenes. If I understand the concept correctly, it involves saying that something in particular is always right, or always wrong (depending). Such as, honesty is always right. Killing someone is always wrong.
But killing someone, for example... you can't say it's always wrong, because what about self-defense?
Let's start a discussion about lying. Do you all think it's always right, always wrong, or sometimes right or wrong, depending upon the individual circumstance? Do you have a definition of lying as being different from fibbing, stretching the truth, etc.?
There's this scene where the reporter asks Leah about her experience, and she says she doesn't want to teach her kids to lie. And she launches into her near-death experience, which the reporter clearly doesn't believe a word of.
I personally think that she could have been discreet and not shared the experience, but it wouldn't have morally corrupted her sons. It would have taught them that sometimes you don't share the whole story with just anyone.
Thoughts?
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Narcissa13 wrote:I think this depends upon the reason for lying. The questions that immediately jump to mind are "Is this lie intended to hurt someone" and "Is this lie intended for selfish reasons". For instance I'd say lying to get out of trouble(in a non-life threatening or dangerous situation) is wrong, whereas telling your mother you forgot your drivers license and then running up to your room to hide her birthday gift from her ( I actually did this one) isn't in any way immoral. Morals are intended to be rules and guidelines to prevent people from hurting each other or being at each others throats. However circumstances play a large role in moral decision making. In the case of lying I'd say it depends on the situation.
I completely agree with you. I don't think there are absolutes in everything. In the case of lying like Narcissa stated it is a questions of what is the intended purpose of the lie, is it to hurt someone, hide something, gain something. It is one thing to lie to your spouse saying you are going out with friends when you are going out with another person (as in cheating) but something else like you said saying your forgot a license to hide a gift. It wasn't intended to hurt her, but intended to surprise her with the gift.
When the reporter asks about her experience, Leah could have said she didn't want talk about it, or it was something too personal to discuss.
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The philosophy lessons of this book were just as fascinating as the religious ones.
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My mom has been dealing with that with her puppy. The dog wakes her up in the middle of the night, pretending to need to go out. Then, she goes out and runs away to play. HA HA. So then last night, my mom wouldn't take her out, and she barked for ten minutes. (The dog, not my mom.)
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I completely agree with this! I think that the context and circumstances are super important for almost everything. Actions and decisions can never be viewed as black and white; we live in a world where things are on a spectrum of gray.Morgan_Malone wrote: ↑17 Dec 2015, 01:16 I don't think lying is necessarily always wrong. However, I think that you can apply this point to most things. For example, you said killing isn't always wrong it could be self-defense. You could take stealing as an example too. If someone is say stealing food or money to support their family can we still consider stealing absolutely wrong? As for lying I think in most cases it is best to tell the truth, but we could consider a case where lying might hurt someone's feelings. In this case it may be better to just stick with a lie. Overall, I don't think there are absolutes to anything. You can't really say this thing is wrong or right all of the time because there will be situations where that's not true.