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PaperclipPerfector  15hr ago (text post)   454 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for January 21, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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Interesting site:

https://www.philosophyexperiments.com/health/Default.aspx

It asks you 30 agree/disagree questions on a variety of "philosophical" topics, and then outputs a score calculating the inherent "tension" or cognitive dissonance in your answers.

The average score is 27% out of 100%, I score a pleasant 7%, but only because:

There are no objective moral standards; moral judgements are merely an expression of the values of particular cultures And also that: Acts of genocide stand as a testament to man's ability to do great evil

The tension between these two beliefs is that, on the one hand, you are saying that morality is just a matter of culture and convention, but on the other, you are prepared to condemn acts of genocide as 'evil'. But what does it mean to say 'genocide is evil'? To reconcile the tension, you could say that all you mean is that to say 'genocide is evil' is to express the values of your particular culture. It does not mean that genocide is evil for all cultures and for all times. However, are you really happy to say, for example, that the massacre of the Tutsi people in 1994 by the Hutu dominated Rwandan Army was evil from the point of view of your culture but not evil from the point of view of the Rwandan Army, and what is more, that there is no sense in which one moral judgement is superior to the other? If moral judgements really are 'merely the expression of the values of a particular culture', then how are the values which reject genocide and torture at all superior to those which don ot

I'm using a common-sense or consensus definition of evil, and I don't think this is an actual contradiction. So I'm pleased to say I have zero philosophical dissonance? Who knows.

I'm using a common-sense or consensus definition of evil

What's that? Whence consensus?

I know it when I see it. I think it's not particularly controversial that genocide is generally considered to be, at the very least, in bad taste.

Not controversial among whom? Europeans had been fine with genocide as "kill them all" until about 19th century when the "white man's burden" took over, but if you extend the definition of genocide to forced population control and cultural suppression, then well into 20th century. Many non-European cultures are still fine with the former one (of course, when applies to really bad people over there). They may not be stressing this point when talking to Europeans, but their actions and even their words when not talking to Europeans show that clearly. I don't think it's as non-controversial as you think it is.

I definitely do not extend the definition of genocide to include cultural conversion, and even population control is iffy, unless the overt or wink-wink goal is to reduce the population of undesirables to zero.

The Holocaust? Genocide. They killed just as many Jews as they could. Gaza? Not a genocide. If the population in Gaza increased during the period of relevance, then clearly it's a very half-arsed genocide.

Not controversial among whom? Europeans had been fine with genocide as "kill them all" until about 19th century when the "white man's burden" took over

I'm sure that you could find majority support for child sacrifice at certain periods of human history, or at least as a widespread belief and practice. When I talk about consensus morality, I'm talking today. Even outside the West, attitudes toward it lean more towards liberal norms as opposed to Hutu and Tutsi willingness to get one in at all costs.

When I talk about consensus morality, I'm talking today.

This definition is valid at, like, every snapshot point in time, then, yes? The same action could be "evil" at one point in time and "not evil" at a different point in time?

Yes.

I need to go hunting on SMBC, because he had to have made a comic about this. If not, he really needs to.

That is, I'm pretty sure you've just solved your problem of evil, in quite the unique way.

It certainly seems logically plausible that whatever god may have created the universe, at the time that he/she/it created the universe, thought, "Hmmmm, I wonder if it would be evil to create a universe where eventually, one day, maybe, depending on how things go, a two year old will get ALL?" Perhaps this deity looked around, took an opinion poll to gauge the vibes, determined from the (presumably otherwise empty) room that it seemed a-ok, and proceeded to create said universe. Guess that just wasn't evil, by a common sense and consensus definition of the term.

I'm not entirely sure what you're on about, but sure? Why not.

If moral relativism or the "problem" of theodicy are new to you, I suppose Google has sources that might be enlightening.

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