Well, I would personally make an attempt to save the kid if it were within my ability. I would not risk my own life to do so, though, and I would certainly think myself irrational for beating myself up over not saving them if I couldn’t help it.
If someone dropped a pencil or wallet next to me, but they sped by and I am really late to a class (or some other important thing), I would probably either leave it there or take it with me and return it later. Taking it with me might look awkward to passersby, though, so I’d either have to sacrifice whatever was on my schedule or give it back to the person.
There isn’t actually a reason to be good. There is absolutely nothing that prevents you from being what the rest of us consider evil. Whether this evil is subjective or not doesn’t actually matter. If you wake up one day and choose to be absolutely evil, to kill and destroy, there is nothing stopping you. Nothing that is, but society’s built in safeguards against those “bad apples” who actually overcome the moral instincts (whether trained or purely instinctive) and become evil.
At the same time, there’s no reason to be evil either. 99% of the time there’s no reason. We are always making a cost-benefit analysis of situations. Let’s say your coworker is willing to lend you a pencil if you don’t bring one. There’s no actual reason you shouldn’t bring your own pencil, the effort it takes to do so is not actually worth the effort saved. It’s simply too petty.
Yet at the same time, the reason you don’t want to take advantage of your coworker’s kindness is the exact same reason they’re kind enough to lend you that pencil. It’s because if one day you actually need that kindness, they’re there. And because they trust you not to take advantage of them, that moral instinct (again, whether trained or purely instinctive) has pointed you in the right direction of not constantly borrowing pencils from them.
You make the assumption that you can walk the line between good and evil easily. This is true. But you underestimate the breadth of that line. You seek to get benefits through “dipping” occasionally into morally wrong or ambiguous acts while still appearing good. The problem is, you may not be actually capable of doing this. Imagine attempting to be so overtly good that people think you’re good, but in actuality taking every opportunity to get selfish benefits. It’s almost impossible. You would have to judge a hundred thousand situations objectively and with a healthy understanding of the risks of every choice.
But it’s possible on a smaller scale.
You’ve heard the stories right? A talented coworker who everyone likes is discovered stealing company funds. The kind, likeable regular is using a loophole in coupon codes to get free food. What these people have done is they’ve discovered a “job” so to speak of doing morally wrong actions. Something they can do with regularity that no one should notice (based off of past experience). We do it all the time, it’s only human. I’m sure you can think of a situation where you do something morally ambiguous repeatedly, only for self-benefit. It’s because you’ve discovered that it’s beneficial and doesn’t look that bad for you… perhaps until it’s fully revealed.
Remember, there’s no fine line between good and evil. They’re in the end the result of hundreds of thousands to billions of everyday interactions. The heroes and the villains of this world are rare.
Laws of physics prevent me from teleporting to France to steal the French Crown Jewels and teleport back out. Nitpick though and living good comfortably is more cost efficient than living bad comfortably.
Except axioms are used to determine validity…
Only 1 situation needs to be true to say it’s good to be good
To claim there is no purpose in being good, being bad should be equally efficient as being good in every situation
But you’re trying to find that situation when there are literally infinite situations.
No, you haven’t read my full argument.
My first claim is not that there is no purpose in being good, it’s that there is nothing that stops you from being evil. There is nothing that will physically stop you from committing evil at any given time.
Also who said the bank denied you? You’ve had perfect credit until now, and you’re trying to buy a small plot of land in wyoming.
