Comments on Fluffytek Art Blog: Principles

Lin - thank you for posting this - it's brilliant ...

2007-02-24T12:38:00.000Z

Lin - thank you for posting this - it's brilliant and spot-on. I think about some of these points often. I think it's important to stick with principles on basic things, but to understand that things are NEVER completely black or white. I used to be a B/W thinker myself, and I've noticed the shift as I learn and "grow up".

You got me thinking there Lin, and I’ve spent a wh...

2007-02-23T23:32:00.000Z

You got me thinking there Lin, and I’ve spent a while pondering this one. Where indeed does the “slide” in principles come from? I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a slide at all, more a qualitative shift.

We’ve been buddies for over 20 years, and with Rich almost as long. When we were young & at school, we went to a Catholic school where all in principles were unquestionable. So what changed?

In the field of formal ethics, there are roughly two main schools of thought, deonotological and consequentialist. The deonotologists are guided by ideas of rights & duties and for some these are considered absolute, such as the right to life. For consequentialists, obviously enough, it’s all about thinking through the consequences of a course of action and choosing accordingly.

I think that as we’ve grown older and wiser, as you observed, we shifted from seeing things in black and white to shades of grey. Equally, we shift from absolutes to working out the consequences of our actions. Many of those old black and whites were based on ignorance and inexperience.

In terms of sexual ethics, we grew up with absolutes where anything less than utter abstinence was breaking the moral code. Now, we see that things that we do with our bodies have consequences, but so long as nobody gets hurt, where’s the problem?

So I don’t think it’s about losing our sense of principles, or that everyone has a price. Absolutism in principles will always lead to judgements that increasingly don’t fit. But principles-by-consequences allows us to shift our notion of what is right and wrong according to the circumstances we find. That’s not copping out, its being mature and understanding that just as life is an illusion that varies according to how we see it, so responses have to be guided by context and perspective.

I don’t think I’ve become a less principled person, though how I respond to ethical issues may be very different now to 20 years ago. But letting go of absolutes frees me to be more compassionate to the circumstances I find people in. And working through the consequences of standpoints also frees me to debunk frauds who make unkind judgements of others based on absolutes that they frequently don’t live up to themselves.

So don’t mourn the loss of principles good buddy, welcome the wisdom of shades of grey that we get with the grey on our heads.

Grommit

well spoken... and a wonderful image, BTW... wish ...

2007-02-22T19:52:00.000Z

well spoken... and a wonderful image, BTW... wish I'd thought of it.

well, thanks for that explanation about principles...

2007-02-21T18:47:00.000Z

well, thanks for that explanation about principles and where they go.

i've found myself, quite a bit lately, asking what happened to my generation? where did they go? where's all those free-spirits who inhabited my youth.

like shit, life happens i suppose. at least i still keep my hair long... like that matters.

Very nice, informative post. Your life is very in...

2007-02-21T18:37:00.000Z

Very nice, informative post. Your life is very interesting. Most funny: you are a (recovering) attorney. Me too. (I'll be outing myself in a future post, so you get an exclusive preview here.) That fact colors so much how I (we) see the world.

Stephen