"Fear is the mother of morality" - Nietzsche. Discuss

Taverner

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Sun May-04-08 05:11 PM
Original message

"Fear is the mother of morality" - Nietzsche. Discuss

I agree 100%

There is no morality - only ethics.

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Shine

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Sun May-04-08 05:19 PM
Response to Original message

1. Fear causes people to be moral? Is that his argument?

I don't really agree with that. I like to think of FEAR as being an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real.

In other words, Fear is something made up in our minds about a situation, a feeling, an event, or whatever. We think it is real and then react, based on that thought process.

Fear exists because we make it so.

I suppose, however, the same thing could be argued for morality. We make up what is "moral" or not.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean about there being no morality, only ethics. What, exactly, is the distinction between the two? :shrug:

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Taverner

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Sun May-04-08 05:22 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. No - his argument is that morality is a disease (a la Rimbaud)

And as any good Nihilist can tell you - morality means nothing. It springs from fear.

Morals and the expression, 'moral values' are generally associated with a personal view of values. Personal morals tend to reflect beliefs relating to sex, drinking, gambling, etc. They can reflect the influence of religion, culture, family and friends.

Ethics is concerned with how a moral person should behave. Ethical values are beliefs concerning what is morally right and proper as opposed to what is simply correct or effective.

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Shine

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Sun May-04-08 05:36 PM
Response to Reply #3

6. I would argue morals and ethics are both influenced by religion, culture, family and friends.

bottom line: we make it up.

That doesn't mean it doesn't MEAN anything, though. :D

I don't buy into the nihilistic mindset.

My world view is probably the opposite of that because I tend to see and/or create meaning in every aspect of my life.

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Taverner

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Sun May-04-08 05:38 PM
Response to Reply #6

9. But that's personal meaning

You don't ascribe that to anyone else.

Everything is subjective - which means there is no objective reality.

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Shine

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Sun May-04-08 05:55 PM
Response to Reply #9

13. Have you ever heard the phrase,

"What you are looking for you are looking with" :shrug:

In other words, perhaps there is no separation between "objective" and "subjective" and truly, all is ONE.

I think we get too easily caught up in the illusion of separation and dualistic-type thinking.

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Lyric

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Sun May-04-08 05:23 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. I would say that you are ethical when you take it upon yourself

to refrain from harming others/cheating others/giving yourself an unfair advantage/etc.

Morality is all about following "rules", and save for the universal common-sense ones (like Don't Steal and Don't Murder) they seem to be largely based on one religious tradition or another.

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Oeditpus Rex

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Sun May-04-08 05:30 PM
Response to Reply #1

5. FEAR is an acronym for Federal Egg Answering Room

which is in reality a front name for FEEBLE � the Free World Extra-Earthly Bodies Location and Extermination Centre.

I just can't help myself. :D

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Shine

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Sun May-04-08 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #5

8. Um.....OK.

good to know. :)

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Oeditpus Rex

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Sun May-04-08 05:51 PM
Response to Reply #8

12. Episode 44

Mr Neutron! The most dangerous and terrifying man in the world! The man with the strength of an army! The wisdom of all the scholars in history! The man who had the power to destroy the world! Mr Neutron! No one knows what strange and distant planet he came from, or where he was going to! Wherever he went, terror and destruction were sure to follow!

Mrs. S, there is something I have to tell you: I have just won a Kellogg's
Corn Flake competition. I got the ball in exactly the right place.

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mitchum

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Sun May-04-08 05:21 PM
Response to Original message

2. No, fear is the mother of marketing

all marketing, from selling god to automobiles, is based on exploiting insecurity

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crimsonblue

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Sun May-04-08 05:36 PM
Response to Original message

7. exactly!

Edited on Sun May-04-08 05:37 PM by crimsonblue

And ethics comes from the natural rights inherent in each person. religion has hijacked ethics, and made it into a wedge issue.

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PassingFair

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Sun May-04-08 05:39 PM
Response to Original message

10. Society itself is the mother of morality....

Do unto others and all that...

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Oeditpus Rex

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Sun May-04-08 05:43 PM
Response to Original message

11. If the fear is of reprisal, then, yes

From a spank on the bottom to an eternity in hell, we draw up our Do and Don't List based on the punishment for each transgression, or each degree of transgression. What differentiates us ethically is whether we list them before we're punished (or rewarded) for them, because we somehow know them � by association with other items on the list, probably (see "degree of transgression") � to be "actionable" under our personal moral code or that which is being taught us.

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ismnotwasm

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Sun May-04-08 06:52 PM
Response to Original message

14. Well I dunno

There is some evidence that altruism is adaptive. Certain morality could stem from that. What is ethics but moral thought on steroids?

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Taverner

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Sun May-04-08 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #14

15. Interesting thought - but who's to say ethics are not altruistic

They are in the ultimate sense...

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Tuesday Afternoon

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Sun May-04-08 07:26 PM
Response to Original message

16. Perhaps we fear that of which we are ignorant...and therefore we try

to outlaw that what we fear by making it out to be immoral. Education can overcome a lot of that. Except, we still need instinctual fear such as fear of fire and fear of heights :shrug:

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Taverner

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Sun May-04-08 08:03 PM
Response to Reply #16

17. Dead on TA

:yourock:

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