ThomasHobbes wrote: ↑May 29th, 2018, 1:37 pm
[I didn't say anything about
moral values]
Yes you did. IN applying the phrase "equal moral agents." you are invoking a system of moral values without which it would not be possible to determine "equality".
Not at all. Even if 'invoke' were the same as 'say', I didn't do that, either.
An agent is one who acts. Agency has no assigned value. Equality can be of status, of worth, of quantity, of power or efficacy. In this case, the last meaning applies. The two agents cited do
not have equal ability to act effectively, or to make moral judgments, or to take responsibility.
You stated that
since I do not think a chicken is as capable of treating me with the same moral consideration as I am capable of showing it, he does not deserve equal moral consideration of the lowest human.
My own view is that,
even though the child is not as capable of respecting my property rights as I am capable of respecting his, it woulds still be wrong for me to deprive him of his ice cream cone. For me, it is not a question of what
he deserves, but of what
I ought to do.
I do not bestow moral values ]
Then you are incapable of using the phrase "equal moral agents."
Don't be silly. I am quite capable of describing something someone has, even if I didn't give it to them.
[I can distribute compassion, pity, sympathy, esteem, empathy ...as I see fit]
In other words you are bestowing moral values.
Those are certainly other words, that have other meanings.
That list was not of values or
moral anythings: those are emotional responses and attitudes to other life-forms. From those attitudes, and from considering the world as I encounter it, I build up a base of convictions and principles, from which I
then derive rules for my own conduct.
Where morality comes in is at the distal end: whether I am consistent in upholding my own stated convictions in my actions.
[Nobody has the authority to decree how, or to whom, and on what basis I should dispense them. ]
and yet you do , and contradict yourself in doing so.
*sigh* Correction: Nobody
other than myself has the authority to decree how, or to whom, and on what basis I should dispense them.