I appreciate the challenge this article presents, and it might prompt me to think more deeply about my own morality, but I can’t help but feel insulted at the same time.
Moral excellence is MUCH harder than climbing a mountain, dieting, or walking ten miles because morality has no objective measure of success. You know when you’ve climbed a mountain; you don’t know when you’ve become morally excellent. I still don’t know whether I should prioritize kindness and gentleness in my everyday life or taking on a demanding and draining career which makes me more irritable but ultimately saves lives. I’m not sure anyone knows.
I would agree that moral improvement is “easy”, like saving +$100 or running more 100m might be easy, but moral excellence? Yeah, Khorton is totally right.
What I realize is that moral excellence is really hard not because of the reasons most people invoke to justify not striving for that (“selfishness is natural”, “it’s just signaling”), but because, to extend the comparison with mountain climbing, it’s like climbing without never knowing where and when it will end.
Maybe hiking is a better metaphor. It’s quite “easy & simple”, but… Really, can you climb Aconcagua right now? Without prep? What if there are no maps,compass, GPS? Wouldn’t you prefer to do it with others you can count on?
I appreciate the challenge this article presents, and it might prompt me to think more deeply about my own morality, but I can’t help but feel insulted at the same time.
Moral excellence is MUCH harder than climbing a mountain, dieting, or walking ten miles because morality has no objective measure of success. You know when you’ve climbed a mountain; you don’t know when you’ve become morally excellent. I still don’t know whether I should prioritize kindness and gentleness in my everyday life or taking on a demanding and draining career which makes me more irritable but ultimately saves lives. I’m not sure anyone knows.
I would agree that moral improvement is “easy”, like saving +$100 or running more 100m might be easy, but moral excellence? Yeah, Khorton is totally right.
What I realize is that moral excellence is really hard not because of the reasons most people invoke to justify not striving for that (“selfishness is natural”, “it’s just signaling”), but because, to extend the comparison with mountain climbing, it’s like climbing without never knowing where and when it will end.
Maybe hiking is a better metaphor. It’s quite “easy & simple”, but… Really, can you climb Aconcagua right now? Without prep? What if there are no maps,compass, GPS? Wouldn’t you prefer to do it with others you can count on?