Quote:
Originally Posted by Bethberry
Is there a moral basis for behaviour which does not depend upon an end-time scenario?
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It depends on what you mean by the end here.
Every action one makes is based on values eg. ends. If you value
bildung you go to higher education, you value social hanging around with mates with no questions asked, you go to a football match and the round in the pub required... Every thing you do is done because you have a value which you crave for. An end you see worthy, a value. As philosophers say, an axiologigal choice.
There was a time when most of the people (a majority anyhow) in western civilisation had somewhat similar views of these ends and they included scenarios of the End. People were taught that what you do is waged in the afterlife. Or that the things you do become meaningful only in the light of those last time occurences. There was a view of the common end then.
In the individualistic West today the thing is different. That is a truism, surely. But as a "non-believer" or an agnostic bent to atheism, I can't see how the "believers" could rob us of our morality? I need no compensation of being nice to others or a metaphysical story of the end to guide me acting morally towards others. I just do not see the need of an end-time scenario to act morally. I just believe being human is what it takes...
So is there a moral basis without an end-time scenario? Surely there is. Being good, whatever the consequence. That is moral.