Social / Moral Principles

What Social / Moral Principles do you find compelling and why? How do these principles fit with the personal principles you identified in Blog 2? Do they conflict at all? Do you think you can live according to both? How will you go about doing so? i.e. Prioritize them? Adopt specific ones for specific contexts?

The social principle I find the most compelling is John Locke's libertarianism. This is because I find his idea of natural born rights and every person having the right to do what they want interesting. He believed that these natural rights allow us the freedom to make choices for ourselves without being hindered by the law or anybody else. I agree with the idea of a just government who cannot tell us what we can and cannot read as well as having the choice to terminate a pregnancy, and other ideas along those lines.

These principles fit well with the person principles I identified in Blog 2, because in my last blog I said how people shouldn't be judged overly negatively for what they think or do. If a person has an opinion they should be allowed to think it or say it without feeling as if they were to be attacked if someone had a different opinion to their own. This is where Locke's social principle of natural rights comes into play. Just as people shouldn't step on one another's ideas, as John Locke believed, there is no right for a person to judge how another person chooses to live and the choices that they choose to make. If a woman wants to abort her fetus, then she should have the right to do so whether it is moral or immoral to others. However, one aspect of Locke's view of natural rights that conflicts with my personal principles are not giving money to the poor as a result of not being able to force anything on people, such as taking money from those who do not want to give it. I believe that Welfare is something that is helpful for those who deserve it. 

I can live according to both principles. I believe that many cases are circumstantial. I mean by this, that even if you strongly agree with one principle in a specific context, a different principle may better suit a different case. I do think it's necessary to adopt specific principles for specific contexts. Not one principle is perfectly just but rather, there are flaws in everything. We just have to find the fit for what principle would be the best in different situations. 




I commented on this blog: http://ashantijones.blogspot.com/