It's not, "Thou shalt not kill."
If you ask a number of people what the most basic ethical directive of our culture is, most would probably quote “Thou shalt not kill.”
I’d argue that isn’t true and if it ever was, it isn’t any longer.
It seems to me that the most basic ethical directive of our culture is not “Thou shalt not kill” or “It is wrong to kill” but instead, “We should not die.” Or formulated differently, “It is wrong for us to die.”
I’m not saying that I agree with the following observations. I’m just making them.
First, who’s who? ‘We’ or ‘us’ are anybody that we identify as being a part of our community. ‘We’ are the ones protected by the ethical directive. Anybody can be a part of our community. It just depends how you split up the world. The other could be anybody from outside our family, nation, social class, ethnicity, species or any other arbitrary distinction you can come up with.
The defining feature is that if you’re a part of ‘us’, you’re protected. It’s acceptable for you to die if you’re not a part of ‘us.’ In fact, if we’re okay with you dying, you’re not a part of us. But if you are a part of us, then it is wrong for you to die.
I’ll post more on this (supporting examples and the like), sometime in the near future. Bug me if I don’t.
I’d argue that isn’t true and if it ever was, it isn’t any longer.
It seems to me that the most basic ethical directive of our culture is not “Thou shalt not kill” or “It is wrong to kill” but instead, “We should not die.” Or formulated differently, “It is wrong for us to die.”
I’m not saying that I agree with the following observations. I’m just making them.
First, who’s who? ‘We’ or ‘us’ are anybody that we identify as being a part of our community. ‘We’ are the ones protected by the ethical directive. Anybody can be a part of our community. It just depends how you split up the world. The other could be anybody from outside our family, nation, social class, ethnicity, species or any other arbitrary distinction you can come up with.
The defining feature is that if you’re a part of ‘us’, you’re protected. It’s acceptable for you to die if you’re not a part of ‘us.’ In fact, if we’re okay with you dying, you’re not a part of us. But if you are a part of us, then it is wrong for you to die.
I’ll post more on this (supporting examples and the like), sometime in the near future. Bug me if I don’t.
