Response

In the video series “llamas with hats” a llama named carl commits many acts of violence, all the while remaining seemingly calm, as if nothing was wrong. Another llama named paul questions carls actions, while remaining stoicly against carls actions. But, if they both have different beliefs about what is right, than what is truly right? Maybe carl was raised in a culture where killing people was socially accepted, and paul the opposite, in which case, how can one judge a culture by another cultures standards? Is there a universally accepted good? If so, what is it?

 How would a universal good be judged? Would it be based on what is good for the individual, or what is good for everyone? And is it even possible for there to always be an action or rule that is good for everyone?  For example, some would say that wearing sunscreen in the sun is a good thing for everyone, so if that was a rule for everyone, than what about some people who are allergic to sunscreen?

Does this mean that there can never be a universal good, and that there will always be exceptions? Or does it mean that there IS a universal good, and we haven’t found it yet? Similar to how Plato called people who did bad things “ignorant of the good” (the good being the universally accepted right for everyone.).

You could also argue that there can be no moral for more than one singular person, in being that they are two separate people, with different backgrounds and personalities, they may pick the same action however, they are doing it for different reasons.

What about pain? Most people would say that pain is a universally bad thing, for both causing and receiving it. However there are others out there who believe that it is indicative of the good, or, by having conquered it, believe themselves stronger. Practicers of opus dei for example, regularly practice Corporal Mortification, or in other words, the self inflictment of pain. They chain themselves with spikes, submit to being whipped, etc. it is their belief that pain is good.

Then there are others who believe that inflicting pain upon yourself is altogether BAD, and that to do so would cause pain to not only the person receiving the mortification, but to the others watching or being concerned for the one participating.

Also, can even products be controversial in terms of ethics, a perfect example would be a computer program called Kon boot, which is a piece of software created for business professionals and home users of a computer who have forgotten their password, and the software allows them to access their computer and bypass the password. The software is controversial because of the possibility of the user being able to use the software for malicious purposes.

So, is it possible to have a universal ideal of good if ideals differ with perspective? I don’t think there is an answer to that question, because everyone has different ideas in their mind.