Moral relativity...

[fajrdrako]

Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them. - Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Comments

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

Interesting quote of someone who did exactly got into history as a moral relativist.
I wonder about what kind of actions he was thinking. Do you know context?

Did you know that supposedly Thomas Aquinas could dictate two books simultaneously, he would alternate a sentence from the one with a sentence from the other (two scribes of course). At least, I think I remember that from my history of philosophy classes. Also, he was so fat that a half circle had to be sawn from the table for him to sit at it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wonder about what kind of actions he was thinking. Do you know context?

No, and I'd like to know. I really don't know as much about Aquinas as I ought. I know he was very, very formative on the development of thought in the western world, but the details as to how are unclear to me. Must research him more. The only thing I have read by Aquinas (besides quotes and excerpts) was an article about how the Church should handle priests and monks who have been sexually abusing young students and acolytes. There was something oddly modern about the topic.

Did you know that supposedly Thomas Aquinas could dictate two books simultaneously

That's scary! Among other things... think how good his Latin must have been.

he was so fat that a half circle had to be sawn from the table for him to sit at it.

Too busy writing and dictating to exercise?

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I would so like to skywrite that. I've spent a lot of time recently dealing with the fact that what is seen as moral now, was seen in past times even in Western Europe as immoral, and vice versa.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's so true! Morality is confusing for a lot of reasons, which is why it's so easy for a lot of people to get it wrong. Somebody clever - and I can't help thinking it was either P.G. Wodehouse, or Oscar Wilde - said something like this: "Morality is like the the Russian empire. Everyone agrees it exists, but no one quite knows where its borders are."

And yes, it doesn't help that things change.

[filkferengi]

Speaking of moral relativists, you might enjoy Steven Brust's post on cats & birds [& the comments thereto appertaining], here:
http://dreamcafe.com/words/2008/03/07/cats-and-birds-an-observation/

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Several of the respondents mentioned their Quaker, and I had to look that up - didn't know it was a type of parrot.

In the case of my budgies, "played with" means "torn into little shreds and then, from the safety of the cage, the scraps scattered to every corner of the apartment, including through closed doors". I don't know how they do it. Smart little guys.

[filkferengi]

It's the teeny-tiny teleporters built by the gremlins, to introduce entropic, wtf fun into your life.

:)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yup - there are tricks to getting little coloured feathers into the backs of drawers and into the bathtub, and my guys have perfected their technique. Alien tech, cobbled together from toys and bits of string!