 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
If ethics is to have any objectivity, we want to find a meaning of "ought" such that, when A says to B, "you ought to do X", this does not depend upon who A is. This at once rules out a great many moral codes. ... If two nations, M and N, are at war with each other, and A is a member of nation M, the act X, which he commends, may be that of killing as many members of nation N as possible; while if A is a member of nation N, it will be citizens of nation M whose death he will prescribe. ...
How, then, are we to arrive at objectivity in our definition of "ought"?
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, (1954), chapter 10：Is there ethical knowledge ?
More info.: https://russell-j.com/cool/47T-1008.htm
* a brief commnet:
Self-deception is widespread both at the individual level and at the state (government) level. When a state is at or near war with an 'enemy' country, those who do not fall prey to self-deception are treated as unpatriotic. Russell is sarcastic about this phenomenon as follows.
"Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country."