My Moral Theory

I think to say that there is one moral theory that is right is a little ridiculous. Each theory we came across posed a different argument and introduced us to a new way of thinking. In that way, I don’t think I have a moral theory. What I have is a bunch of tools to further analyze the day-to-day decisions that I have been making all along. For example, now when with a bunch of friends, and faced with the decision between two alternatives, I can think as Mill did and try to understand what would cause the greatest overall happiness for my friends and I. I need not extend it to as far as Mill did, but the mere ability to think in that manner is something that I now have in my mental arsenal that I did not have before. When reading the newspaper and seeing all the carnage going on in Iraq, I now wonder, is there a State of Nature? Is this the exemplification of it?

Of all the theories, I think Aristotle comes the closest, but it’s hard to even say that. It’s like the old math problem, “I can prove to you that all the numbers in existence are between 2 and 3.” And you would go on to cite the infinite amount of numbers that are between those two numbers. I think of the definition of goodness the same way. The closer you think you get to the definition, the more you have to magnify that one point on the continuum and you realize that you are now on a smaller continuum of with the same problems. I think this goes on infinitely but that does not mean we should not try because the tools and thought experiments we gain in the process are invaluable.

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