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Is there a philosophical position describing this?


Andyr

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Does anyone know if there is a philosophical position which states that even if there exists some morally and ethically correct way to life your life, that does not necessarily mean you should do so? If so, can you provide some information? :p

 

Note: I am neither endorsing nor condemning such a belief, or asking for an argument why it is right, or more probably, one why it is wrong.

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i'm not sure i'm understanding what yr asking, but isn't this the old 'free will vs. determinism' question, but framed in the reverse?

 

check the wikipedia entry on free will, in particular the discussion on moral responsibility and incompatibilism.

 

the cliffnotes quote to pull out is probably

Many claim that, in order for a choice to be free in any sense that matters, it must be true that the agent could have done otherwise

 

so if you hold that we have free will, then even if there is some absolute and verifiable morality, we can only said to be free to choose it if we're free to not choose it. and if yr not free to not choose it, then it can hardly be a morality, really.

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Cheers, you two. :p

 

Domi: It's not quite Nietzschian, but yeh, I guess it could lie in that direction.

 

Seanas: Yes, I think that is getting towards it. Wikipedia is one of my bookmarked resources for info, too. :p I suppose another way to phrase my query would have been Is living a 'good' life any more valid than choosing otherwise?

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Seanas: Yes, I think that is getting towards it. Wikipedia is one of my bookmarked resources for info, too.  I suppose another way to phrase my query would have been Is living a 'good' life any more valid than choosing otherwise?

 

Chernyshevsky with his "What is to be done" versus Dostoevsky with his "Notes from the Underground" could be a good example:

 

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuse...%20from%20U.htm

 

http://www.objectivistcenter.org/articles/...he-ayn-rand.asp

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Chernyyshevskiy is actually a good idea (and an underrated writer), but not sure if he was ever translated. From Britts Aldington is somewhat in the same vein. BTW, Kulyok, haven't asked you before, but have you ever tried Golovkina-Rimskaya-Korsakova or Gaito Gazdanov? I left after they were just starting to be 'discovered', and I was wondering if they 'took'? Golovkina is the one book wonder, but Gazdanov had a few exceptional novels.

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Nah, I'm reading trash like Orlovsky and Perumov at the moment. But if you recommend, I'll look them up in a certain online library.

 

P.S. Damn! Now I keep reading Gadzanov's stories, and it's 1am here already. You're one evil woman, Domi! :p Golovkina-Rimskaya-Korsakova I haven't found neither at lib nor at aldebaran - must be an unknown quantity, I guess.

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'Tis a pity, then. Golovkina's "The Defeated"/"Pobejdennyye" was published around 90-92 in Sovremennik. There were rumors of a book to be published, but I guess, it never happened. It's understandable, I guess, since the book is tragic, and I doubt that Russia now consumes sad very well. But it is definetly the best story I read that revolved around repressions, and entirely avoided the judgmental or remorseful attitude of the populist literature. From a standpoint of a writer wannable it has such a wide range of aristocratic characters in all sort of circumstances, written by an insider... it's incredible :p

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