'The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy'

[Mhoram]

I suppose I’m sort of shocked to find so many people willing to argue that a life of amorality can be just as fulfilling and happy as a life of virtue; perhaps it’s simply that words like “morality” and “virtue” have acquired certain ominous and hypocritical connotations and associations in our modern world.

I would suggest that this is a reaction to living in a world where what is moral is a very relative abstract notion, being so hard to define...and that seems to be necessarily at odds with itself. You must take food that belongs to John in order to save the life of the starving Henry. Henry's right to help takes precedence over John's right to his property; nevertheless John's right remains, and John in wronged by the act which saves Henry. Once again, the lesser of two evils. Daily we are confronted with decisions of one immorality versus another.

It seems better to spend time justifying the immorality that is matter-of-fact in everyone's life than to spend time musing over the morally virtuous lifestyle that seems so alien and perhaps even idealistic.

Estel: Does this book cover other topics of philosophy, comparing them to Tolkien's writing? If so, you might wish to start a new thread on another topic at some time.