Quote:
Originally Posted by apotropoxy";p="
I think there is only one fundamental moral rule: Treat others as you would be treated. That is the essential civilizing impulse.
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That ethic, while well intended, has the flaw that others may not wish to be treated as we wish to be treated. Therefore, one must add to that ethic a qualifier, "Treat others as you would be treated...
if you were them." However, it is impossible to know how others wish to be treated with absolute precision. Then there is the problem that neither we nor others may know what is best for us in the long term. Would that ethics were as simple as the golden rule, but it is not.