I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
pemerton said:As I've already mentioned upthread, this claim is hugely contentious among contemorary analytic moral philosopher, and is denied by the mainstream.At least in the Real World, it's functionally impossible to tell objectively if they are flawed or not. There's no definition of "right" and "wrong" that isn't culturally, personally, and temporally bound, making those principles open to interpretation and open to debate (because one person's position to determine right and wrong isn't in any way privileged over another person's) and open to change (what is wrong in 1345 AD is different than what is wrong in 2014 AD).
One of the important words I used was "functionally." Most people aren't contemporary mainstream analytic moral philosophers, nor do they have one handy to tell them what moral decision they should make (nor, actually, do I know of any contemporary mainstream analytic moral philosophers who bother to offer their counseling services to those who desire to answer moral questions objectively). Of course, there's little reason for me to accept that all contemporary mainstream analytic moral philosophers have any kind of truly objective moral code (you've stated that there is, but by way of evidence just directed me to academic journals -- the closest I've gotten in my outsiders perspective is some "science of morality" stuff that is pretty significantly flawed), but even accepting the proposition, that doesn't make such a code functionally useful to anyone in actual decision-making.
This is part of how PS resembles the real world in its conflicts. No one can tell you what you "ought" to do with any true authority. It is up to the player to determine what they feel is right and wrong, based on the goals that they set for the multiverse via their character.
Anyone who has trouble accepting that premise certainly would have problems playing a Planescape game, just as someone who had trouble accepting the premise of a magical university hidden in England would have trouble reading Harry Potter. Even from those who believe there is an objective moral truth in the Real World, PS would like you to suspend that belief for this setting. (I don't think I've actually ever played more than one session of PS without a predominantly religious player base, FWIW, so I've certainly seen people who believe in an obvious and functional objective morality willing to entertain the idea that in this game, the answers are less clear. In part, I think, because PS characters think about things as people functionally think about these things, but they have little risk of being "wrong" due to the multiverse not having an objective viewpoint on what "wrong" is.)
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