I agree, mark 12_30, that we cannot take our own moral insights into Professor Tolkien's world.
Aiwendil said:
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An implicit question here is whether morality actually exists (that is, whether there is really some rational justification for ideas of right and wrong)
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Let me expand on the "Do unto others" part of my previous post, as I feel it left me seeming like a somewhat hard-headed Christian to leave you with such a simple Biblical proverb and no explanation. Since I think we can all agree that nobody wants to be killed, and that we can all agree that it inherently makes us feel worse having been stolen from, lied to or cheated out of something, as I think has always been the case for civilized humanity, then we can sum up those things (murder, thievery, etc.) as being immoral. Although certainly not all people in past ages have been able to see the difference between doing something to someone and having something done to you, I think most of us can agree today that what is immoral is any deliberate human action that results in the loss of life, or any human action that the majority of people would not want inflicetd on them (i.e. rape, theft).