From: Horse (horse@darkstar.uk.net)
Date: Tue Oct 22 2002 - 00:29:28 BST
Hi Wim
On 21 Oct 2002 at 22:49, Wim Nusselder wrote:
> Dear Horse,
>
> You wrote 20/10 22:43 +0100:
> 'When we make judgements of others we make our judgements based on how we
> experience their behaviour - what else is there to experience. We have no
> access to the inner feelings and motivations of others except by their
> actions.'
>
> We not only experience the behavior of others, we also experience that there
> is more to our 'selves' than the behavior that we show to others. If empathy
> has any meaning and reality, it must imply that we limit our judgements of
> others (which we recognize as similar to our 'selves') to judgements we
> would accept of our 'selves'.
Perhaps I have not expressed myself well enough. I am not using the term 'moral
judgement' in the sense that it is a final thought on the matter. Moral judgement to me is
part of an ongoing process of assessing the world. As I experience more I should be
able to make better and better judgements, assessing and re-assessing what I know and
incorporating any new knowledge I gain.
I know I'm going to make mistakes but this isn't important. What is important is that I
learn from these mistakes.
I agree with you that there is more to myself than I show to the world. And by realising
this I need to assume it of others. This still doesn't preclude me from making moral
judgements and being entirely justified in doing so. It does mean that any judgement is
contingent upon the knowledge that I have and that this knowledge is gained from
experience.
So I would ask, in view of the above, why is making a moral judgement wrong and is
there anything other than experience, in one form or another, that enables us to make
these judgements.
Horse
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