Titanians.org | There are many who believe that killing another human being is always unethical – an evil deed, regardless of the circumstances and motivation behind the act. Because of this, many victims of violence and tyranny have died needlessly – thinking they were acting ethically by refraining from defending themselves. It’s time to set the record straight.
Analysis
To acquire a profound understanding of the issues involved in this matter, we must start with the definition of a valid ethic. Here is an example:
“An act is ethical if it increases the creativity of at least one person, including the person acting, without limiting or diminishing the creativity of anyone.”
From this definition, we can derive the following principles by pure logic:
• Every ethically non-trivial act falls on an ethical continuum, in accordance with the degree to which the act increases creativity.
• Murder is unethical (as is obvious), because, by definition, it reduces the creativity of the person being murdered.
• It is unethical to permit an unethical act if one can effectively forbid or prevent it.
This raises the question, “Is killing in self defense properly construed as ‘murder’?” Read Entire Article
By Cronus de Gaia
