What Social / Moral Principles do you find compelling and why? How do these principles fit with the personal principles you identified in Blog 2? Do they conflict at all? Do you think you can live according to both? How will you go about doing so? i.e. Prioritize them? Adopt specific ones for specific contexts?
A social priniciple that I find compelling is libertarianism. I feel that complete and whole hearted libertarianism is the way for all men to be happiest. Being free to do what you please without having to be bound by laws and social boundaries, can promote the inner man's supreme happiness, something that can be considered a purpose of life.
The libertarian take on life can conflict with some of my personal priniciples spoken about in Blog 2. In Blog 2 I mentioned having a belief in God and religion. God being the supreme ruler and controller of the universe and religion being a set of rules that can either make or break a person's identity as a person of faith. As a person of faith, I would suppsoed to be used to rules and regulation that will establish me as a Christian. For example, someone cannot be a Muslim not adhering to the priniciples of Islam that create the Muslim identity. Therefore, Libertarianism cannot be correlated with my personal philosophies spoken about in Blog 2. However, also in Blog 2 I wrote about my intrigue in the Taoist belief. Allowing the natural flow, to guide life, one can live freely and without stress, something can vaguely correlate to the idea of Libertarianism. That aspect of my second blog can reflect the ideas represented in this one.
I do not belive that I can live according to both without being bias towards one idea. Religion is too concrete to be incorporated with Libertarianism. The rules on how to live life and how to make one's self acceotable unto God defy the ultimate freedom that Libertarianism entails.
This week I commented on http://dallaslrsmith.blogspot.com and http://lukedemuro.blogspot.com .
I can agree with you when you write about how the two ideas(faith and liberty) cannot go hand in hand. I appreciate that you are aware that you cannot balance the two without either stressing yourself out or living a lie.
ReplyDeleteI also agree because today's generation is embarrassed to live "freely" without judgement and regret.
ReplyDeleteWhat interested me the most with your blog post was when you said that people are happiest without social constraints or laws. Happiness is definitely a prominent purpose for many people's lives. I can connect with this idea of libertarianism. My blog states similar views to yours. Both of our blogs mentioned how laws can hinder your being; you saying it stifles happiness, and I by saying that it is unjust to tell people what they can and cannot do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that laws and standards hinder the way we live out our lives. I mentioned that in my blog as well, and I came to the conclusion that because they (laws, morals) will always be, we have to somewhat shape our lives to society's standards. You say that the abilty to do what we want will lead to a happy life, but in some cases, it could hurt others. I agree in a way- that free will is a great thing-but I have to disagree with it as well, because it could lead to complete and total chaos.
ReplyDeleteHey Ashanti, I agree with you in this blog. I believe that every man would be happier if there were no laws, rules and regulations we had to follow, but as a Christian we have rules to follow(the ten commandments). So like you said their is a conflict between the two, but governtment rules and christians rules are two diffent guidelines to live by.
ReplyDeleteOne could argue that rules are what allow us to be happy. They provide a structure for our actions and give us a sense of control over our lives. If there were no rules we wouldn't be able to trust the intentions of others or predict their general behavior.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Liberty and Religion these two actually get used to support each other often. Libertarianism would justify your right to choose to follow the religion you want. In the Libertarian view self imposed rules are just fine. A believer might also argue that god gave you natural rights and Libertarianism says that those are the only ones that a government can protect so Libertarianism is true to the will of god.