Philosophy Now Forum

Sometimes I wonder, if I am more ethical than others, does that make me a better person than they are? And if so, do I get a trophy for it?

some people think they are getting an eternal paradise after they die

the best trophies are earned by fabulous bowlers...

-Imp

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 3:08 pm Sometimes I wonder, if I am more ethical than others, does that make me a better person than they are? And if so, do I get a trophy for it?

Violating community ethical standards less frequently than others definitely means one's behavior is less bad than other's (defining the floor), but doesn't necessarily mean that said behavior is (on the whole) better than other's (describing the ceiling).

LuckyR wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 10:05 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 3:08 pm Sometimes I wonder, if I am more ethical than others, does that make me a better person than they are? And if so, do I get a trophy for it?

Violating community ethical standards less frequently than others definitely means one's behavior is less bad than other's (defining the floor), but doesn't necessarily mean that said behavior is (on the whole) better than other's (describing the ceiling).

I was being facetious. Not suggesting I am somehow more ethical than anyone else.

More to the point, some suggest, you had better be at least as ethical as those in power command of all those who wish to avoid, well, you know.

Pick one:

1] you're shunned
2] you're arrested, tried and convicted of...treason?
3] you're sent to a reducation camp, a gulag or a gas chamber
4] you're sent to Hell for all of eternity

Interestingly enough, we shall soon see what Trump has in store for those who refused to be duped here in America. Duped, in other words, by actually imagining that Trump has an ethical bone in his body.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 3:08 pm Sometimes I wonder, if I am more ethical than others, does that make me a better person than they are? And if so, do I get a trophy for it?

It means you're helplessly privileged.

Who is the better man...

The timid one who couldn't hurt a fly, or, the violent one who denies his impulse (cuz he knows unjustified violence is wrong)?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 3:08 pm Sometimes I wonder, if I am more ethical than others, does that make me a better person than they are? And if so, do I get a trophy for it?

"Better" is relative. It looks different, depending on what one's is comparing oneself to.

Compared to other people, we all tend to make ourselves look good to ourselves. If we have faults, we have explanations, excuses and extenuations for many of them; we often fail to offer the same to others, since we have no knowledge of why they really did what they did; so they inevitably look worse to us than we look to ourselves.

Moreover, people don't start in the same place we do. Some come into life in a more challenging or morally-degrading situation than we do, with less going for them...and if they become better relative to where they started, and you and I remain on the same ethical level as our birth handed us, and we never improve at all from our already-privileged condition, are we really virtuous? Or is it the wretch who crawled up from the gutter, even though we, in our imperious smugness, perceive him to be a level down from us, perhaps, a better man than you and I, because at least he did something to improve his moral status, whereas we rested on our laurels?

So we may think we are good. But is that reality? If we knew why people do what they do, and if our own motives were really exposed, would we be better than they? Maybe not.

Meanwhile, how do you and I look, if the standard we use is not other people but God? How do we measure up to perfection? Have we been all we could have been? If a "trophy" is to be handed out, who gets to award it? What is His standard? And if it's so much higher than ours, then what does our having met our own standard amount to? Maybe no more than pharisaical smugness.

henry quirk wrote: ↑Fri May 02, 2025 1:21 pm Who is the better man...

The timid one who couldn't hurt a fly, or, the violent one who denies his impulse (cuz he knows unjustified violence is wrong)?

the one who keeps his balls out of the gutters

-Imp

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 3:08 pm Sometimes I wonder, if I am more ethical than others, does that make me a better person than they are? And if so, do I get a trophy for it?

You might get a trophy if you help the police as a witness to a crime, because you want to be an ethical citizen. However, those whom you witnessed may offer you incentives to change your memories, more likely if they are gangsters. What do you do then?