The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

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It will be a good day for humanity when we manage to mature ever so fractionally and finally let go of presentism.

Hmmm. I find the assumption that no one held the moral positions against problematic social mores because "that's the way it was" a lot more common. For example when people say something like "That attitude against [insert oppressed class] was just accepted back then," without ever considering that those people themselves most certainly objected to it.
 

Hmmm. I find the assumption that no one held the moral positions against problematic social mores because "that's the way it was" a lot more common. For example when people say something like "That attitude against [insert oppressed class] was just accepted back then," without ever considering that those people themselves most certainly objected to it.
"He was a man of his time."
 


Hmmm. I find the assumption that no one held the moral positions against problematic social mores because "that's the way it was" a lot more common. For example when people say something like "That attitude against [insert oppressed class] was just accepted back then," without ever considering that those people themselves most certainly objected to it.
That's funny. That's basically a restatement of presentism in a nutshell. "We have the right moral position now, but they didn't back then...well, actually, some people back then shared the moral position we have now...so we can judge those in the past who didn't share our present moral position by the standards of today." That's literally the problem. It's the assumption we now have the right moral position which is further compounded by judging the past by current moral positions. It utterly ignores that we don't have the right of all things and that in even a few years things we think of as perfectly moral can and likely will be seen as utterly monstrous. We're certainly getting better in a lot of ways and making progress, sure. But we too will be judged by some unknowable standards of the future.
 

That's funny. That's basically a restatement of presentism in a nutshell. "We have the right moral position now, but they didn't back then...well, actually, some people back then shared the moral position we have now...so we can judge those in the past who didn't share our present moral position by the standards of today." That's literally the problem. It's the assumption we now have the right moral position which is further compounded by judging the past by current moral positions. It utterly ignores that we don't have the right of all things and that in even a few years things we think of as perfectly moral can and likely will be seen as utterly monstrous. We're certainly getting better in a lot of ways and making progress, sure. But we too will be judged by some unknowable standards of the future.
"We are just people of our time."
 

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