Blacks and whites in ethics

[Indigo]

So this friend of mine gave me a handful of examples trying to disprove my notion that there are no shades of gray when dealing with the good and the evil.

- The wars throughout the times has benefitted us in technology and medicine. Many experiments done on the jews during WW2 resulted in important discoveries in medicine that are being used today.

- Many victims that have been bullied in their childhood have become very strong and confident individuals today because they have learnt from the difficulties.

- Poor and exploited countries, in many cases, have stronger communities and take better care of their families and elders.

- If you break your arm, it my grown thicker at the point of fracture, and can be more resilient in the future.

- If you have certain illnesses when you are a child, you will be resilient towards them when you are older.

Where are his flaws?

[Selene]

Are you under the assumption that because some practical good comes out of an evil event, it becomes ethically "gray?"

[George H. Smith]

So this friend of mine gave me a handful of examples trying to disprove my notion that there are no shades of gray when dealing with the good and the evil. - The wars throughout the times has benefitted us in technology and medicine. Many experiments done on the jews during WW2 resulted in important discoveries in medicine that are being used today. - Many victims that have been bullied in their childhood have become very strong and confident individuals today because they have learnt from the difficulties. - Poor and exploited countries, in many cases, have stronger communities and take better care of their families and elders. - If you break your arm, it my grown thicker at the point of fracture, and can be more resilient in the future. - If you have certain illnesses when you are a child, you will be resilient towards them when you are older. Where are his flaws?

I'm afraid I don't understand the position you wish to defend, i.e., "that there are no shades of gray when dealing with the good and the evil." This is an ambiguous way of putting the issue.

Rand's position was that "there can be no 'gray' moral principles." (My emphasis.) None of the your examples contradicts this claim. For example, we should not start wars for the purpose of advancing technology, even if such advances are sometimes the unintended consequence of wars. Nor should we perform medical experiments on unwilling people, even if our motive is to advance medicine. Etc., etc.

In other words, none of your examples leads to, or entails, "gray moral principles."

Ghs

[Reidy]

Adding to #3:

These objections confuse two entirely different claims:

- Judgements of right or wrong can (and should) be clear, certain, excluded-middle statements;

- Life usually or always presents us with clear, certain, excluded-middle situations.

The examples in #1 remind us that the second statement is false (though they aren't the best ones to make the point). That proves nothing about the first. Rand observed in "The Cult of Moral Greyness" that the prevalence of mixed, hard-to-decide situations is one very good reason why we need to go to the effort of making thought-through judgements, separating what's good from what' bad.

[studiodekadent]

I agree with all of the above respondents to the original poster.

Most real world moral situations are "shades of gray" (i.e. mixtures of good things and bad things). But this doesn't mean one cannot separate the good elements out from the evil elements when performing an ethical analysis of the situation.