Absolutes

[adamark]

It's really hard to say that there are moral guidelines against something. I was going to say that murder is an absolute wrong but I can think of numerous examples where I would even allow murder.

I think a moral absolute that permits something is more likely.

For instance, "Self defense is always allowed against an unprovoked, unjustified threat." But I might want to substitiute "allowed" and have "good" instead.

The other problem with this statement is that the amount of self defense is not defined. Certainly you should not kill someone if they are simply defaming you with words. So maybe: "Proportional self defense is always good against an unprovoked, unjustified threat."

Actually the problem now lies with the word "good" because that is so malleable. Gandhi would not think it's good, probably. So I would replace the word good with "justified."

"Proportional self defense is always justified against an unprovoked, unjustified threat."

Is this a moral absolute? There are probably other problems with it that I haven't seen yet. I think the true absolutes can't be expressed in words, which is why we'll never know just what they are.