The Fundamental Question of Ethics

[Chasmys]

"Is the man's behavior courageous or cowardly?"

To explain why this is the fundamental question of ethics, we have to back up a little bit.

The situation described is our own world. We cannot know that anything is real other than our own existence. We know "the man" is real "in all the ways we know something is real" because he is a POV. The world seems unreal, because it existence is easily questioned and those questions have no satisfactory answers.

SRD is saying that the "real" world could be a complete illusion, but that's ok -- it does not necessarily invalidate questions of ethics. Ethics has an existence independent of epistemology.

So translating a bit, the fundamental question of ethics becomes:

Is there such a thing as ethics (given that there might not be any such thing as the "real" world).

So it's a trick question. The answer to "Is the man's behavior courageous or cowardly?" is "Yes."

A secondary question -- less fundamental -- is "which?".

[danlo]

You pose a very interesting debate and dilemma, however, I am going to move this to the Thomas Covenant Discussion Forum.

[Fist and Faith]

Ethics has an existence independent of epistemology.

In reality as in dreams, what matters is the answer we find in our hearts to the test of Despite. - SRD

Excellent post, Chasmys! We've discussed that note before, but you've come at it from an entirely new angle! Well done, and Welcome!

[amanibhavam]

I think I started a thread on this a while ago, will try to bump it for you.

[kaseryn]

Does anything matter? As we can't prove the reality of anything one way or the other, then it's what matters to us. So TC answers the ethics question himself when he itterates 'Just keep going forward. See what matters.' We find the meaning of our own lives, in the absence of rather larger more convenient answers huh

[Revan]

You pose a very interesting debate and dilemma, however, I am going to move this to the Thomas Covenant Discussion Forum.

Where was it at first?

[danlo]

Why is it important Sir? It was in Dissecting the Land, fyi...

[JD]

To me the whole issue of whether he was cowardly or courageous plays off on the leprosy. That disease controls every factor of his life, how he acts, his physical well being, his thinking process. Leprosy is his life. As a leper, he cannot afford to dream, dreams are made of hope, he starts dreaming and then he starts forgetting his VSE's, he stops taking his meds, then the disease progresses. While many see his actions in the first 2 books as cowardly, he's reacting as a leper. Yes he's rude, insensitive as hell, a real pain in the butt at times, but he has been isolated from the public and may have lost some social skills. I would say it would be hard to socialize with people after they've been shunning you, and basically accusing you of being an unclean leoer.