If Nothing Is Inherently Good Or Bad, How Are We To Make Moral Judgments?
I recently received a very thought-provoking comment from a reader who had a question about my blog post where I claimed that spanking children was barbaric. I have a reservation that maybe you could help me understand. In [your blog post] on spanking children being barbaric … I was confused. If there is no meaning in events [for example, spanking of children], if we can't know the future result of that [action] "for sure," then how can it be barbaric? … If my partner yells at me, shall I call it barbaric if statistics show being yelled at has negative consequences? [...]
Are our emotions a good guide to action?
I recently got into a discussion about the appropriate use of emotions in making important decisions with my daughter Brittany. Several points that I have never written about or which were touched on only briefly in prior posts were discussed in our conversations. I think you will find our conversation on this topic useful as she raised some questions that I’m sure some of you also would raise if you had the opportunity. My first note to Brittany I’ll start with a note I sent to my daughter Brittany recently after she had said something about the importance of considering [...]
Life is a game… and you make the rules
As I read your comments to last week’s post—in which I contended that forgiveness is never necessary because people’s behavior has no meaning—I could hear many of you thinking, “If events have no meaning, what’s the point of life? Why do anything? Why care about anything? In fact, how can you possibly care about anything if nothing has meaning?” These are thoughtful questions that I will answer in today’s post. (Please also take a look at my responses to last week’s comments at https://www.mortylefkoe.com/dont-forgive/#.) The difference between consequences and meaning Events, including people’s behavior, usually have consequences. In my case, [...]
Why Do We Need To Create Meaning?
Why do we usually make up a meaning for events that have no inherent meaning? And how does that automatic, unconscious meaning-making process create problems for us? Why we need to create meaning As a human being, your survival is conditional—it is not guaranteed. In other words, there are some things that help insure your survival and some things that threaten your survival. As a very young child, having loving, caring parents makes us feel our survival is insured; having parents who do not love or care about us (or who we feel do not love or care about us) [...]
