Shiv, Morality does not stop you from coveting anyone's neighbor's wife. Occasionally religion might, but as there's nothing called universal morality, that won't stop you.
So do go ahead, if thats what your primary angst is about :) :-) On 09-Sep-2014 9:38 am, "SS" <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, 2014-09-09 at 08:02 +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > On 08-Sep-14 10:27 PM, SS wrote: > > > Morality is generally not about restriction of rights, except as they > > impact Right. And Wrong. Which are what morality is about - the > > identification of Right and Wrong. Morality can be completely > > individual, or applicable within a context. There is no such thing as > > "universal morality". (e.g, perhaps the most often quoted example of a > > universal moral rule is "thou shalt not kill" - but if were truly > > universal then one wouldn't have the death penalty, for instance.) > > All morality is a restriction of rights. The free born human individual > technically has the right to do any damn thing he wants, including > steal, lie and covet his neighbour's wife. Morality restricts these > rights. > > > > > > Sci Fi can be taken as one type of literary output from societies where > > > science and technology have profoundly influenced the lives of people > in > > > those societies. > > > > In other words, every society in today's world (barring a few outliers > > [1])? > > > I have not seen much Indian, Chinese or Egyptian SciFi. In fact Indian > society has barely been touched by science and tech the way say European > societies have. Oh yes many may have cellphones and TV sets, but > possession of cargo is not the same thing as being a technologically > aware society, barring a educated few outliers. > > > SF, like other literature, is at the end an exploration of what it means > > to be human (this includes the "literature of ideas" or "gee whiz" > > aspects). This is, at this level of abstraction, *exactly* what priests > > and philosophers deal with. > > I would be interested in Sci Fi views on child sex, age of consent, > marriage, divorce, contraception and abortion > > > I'm not really sure what you're saying here - but one comment is that > > that being a "sociologist" doesn't really bar you from being a SF > > writer, for one thing. > > The problem as I see it is that Sci Fi cannot stand in for sociology and > vice versa. It is possible to write fiction and pass it off as a > sociological study - I think it has been done - but that is not the > point. > > The point is "What is a good society?" If priests, philosophers and Sci > Fi writers have ideas - what are sociologists doing? What would be their > role in defining what is good or bad about societies, given that as a > group, sociologists are held as being distinct from priests and > philosophers. > > In fact - who is even looking at what a good future society should look > like given that no one takes philosophers and priests seriously and Sci > Fi is, well, Fi. > > shiv > > > > >
