Reddit /rant about “Caring about other people”
Here is the content of this reddit post:
I don’t understand how to explain that you should care about other people.
You just should. It should be an intrinsic part of your humanity. You shouldn’t need a reason to care about other people. You shouldn’t need an incentive. You should just care about the wellbeing of other people.
One can point out that this is an example of Ethical Intuitionism. That’s fine. This person is certainly speaking of intuition. But I am more worried about the social implications of this person’s words. This person intends to command right and wrong on the basis of “it’s just right, so just do it.”
Technically, one can say that this is not Divine Command. Of course, it is not! It maybe is, more broadly, Deontological Ethics, of which Divine Command ethics is a subset. But Deontological Ethics is more absurd than Divine Command ethics! Because Divine Command ethics at least has a source and a self-interested reason for the ethical rules. To be fully Deontological is to believe that you can make up morals out of thin air, and then force them on others, without any rationalization! How foolish, and how socially-irresponsible, is that!
More important - the reason we white people are deontological in an abstract way is obviously that we have a historical culture of Divine Command morality. Our mommies taught us right from wrong by yelling at us in an authoritarian way. They rarely gave satisfactory reasons for their morals. Thus, I can say, coherently, that white people are still conceptualizing of morality as if we are in “Divine Command mode.”
Some white people think of morality in the Kantian sense. Check the wiki for that. It’s especially pertinent with regards to some social norms, such as our norms regarding low ambition and low competition, and our hatred of corruption.
But the everyday life of white people is full of Divine Command-ish folly. It actually makes it quite difficult to discuss problems with other people in our everyday life; they are not approaching things in life in a rational way. And it also makes it difficult to change people’s cultural values. Lastly, it is hard to guide and be a positive influence to kids who resist your advice, for whatever reason, if you don’t have a reason for your own advice!
Deontological ethics is a big problem in our culture.