Moral absolutism and its deficiencies and fallacies
1. MA is too abstract as it favors generalities and principles over real-life specifics. In other words the MA is incapable of compassion toward individuals as MA focuses on general principles. (Giving food to the poor but “not solving the problem,” according to a socialist relative)
2. One rule fits all is a Procrustean nightmare. Look at case studies such as marriage and divorce or having children. Or look at the fact that not all abortions are equal.
3. MA fails to provide context but imposes MA on everything. See the film Les Miserables and the poor man who stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving family.
4. Often people embrace MA in order to unleash their hatred and hostility toward others. Or they wish to dominate and bully others.
5. MA fails to see the gray as everything is erroneously reduced to black and white. Again look at divorce.
Examples of moral principles that sound like absolutes until examined more closely:
1. Compassion toward the poor is good. Right? Wrong. Studies show that helping poor can actually lead to more suffering and starvation.
2. Divorce is bad. But what about an abusive spouse, a drug addict, a gambling addict? Are marriages with an addictive, philandering, abusive spouse viable?
3. Honor they parents. But what if they steal your money and bring losers into the house that steal your money?
4. Stealing is bad. But what if you steal to feed your starving children?
5. Murder is bad. But what if you kill someone who molested your child?
6. Torture is wrong. But what if torturing someone prevents a nuclear bomb from blowing up and killing tens of thousands of people?
7. Marriage is generally a good thing. But what if you feel suffocated in a marriage no matter how loving your partner is?
8. Hurting someone’s feelings is bad. But what if hurting someone’s feelings upfront spares them greater pain in the long-run. In this regard, Simon Cowell is compassionate or you are when you break things off quickly rather than letting them drag on.
9. Therapy is generally a good thing for someone who needs it. But what if therapy simply compounds a person’s self-centeredness. Maybe they need something else.
10. Cheating on your college exams but if everyone is doing it, the grading curve is inflated so that if you don’t cheat you are no longer competitive; other students’ cheating combined with your not cheating could prevent you from getting into UCLA or USC. What do you do?
11. How important is your personal integrity? Let’s say you have limited job skills and you get a job at a gas station mini mart and all your co-workers shoplift. They want you to shoplift so that they’ll feel secure that you won’t rat on them. If you don’t shoplift, your co-workers make it clear they can do things that will get you fired and that will make your life very unpleasant. You have three children and a wife to feed. What do you do?
12. Should you cheat on your taxes?
13. Will you play God and create a genetically-enhanced Super Baby?
14. Adultery is bad for individuals and society. But what about societies in the past where divorce wasn’t an option and people were enslaved to hellish marriages? Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog” shows a compassionate attitude toward adultery.
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