A critique of moral relativism

Why are you hiding behind a tautology? You have rolled up the contextual questions into a dictionary definition. Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life. Therefore, those who attempted to assassinate Hitler--a plot which, if successful, would have excised a great evil and likely have saved millions of lives--were conspiring to commit an immoral act. Abortion, where legal, by your lights, then must be a moral act by definition, and those who oppose it do so immorally, since it is itself--again, by your lights, and the law in many places--a moral act.So, sure, I'll answer the question. No, murder is not an immoral act. It is certainly illegal, by definition, but law does not legislate morality.Do you believe law determines morality? Did the laws of Nazi Germany--and do the laws of China regarding prison labor, forced abortions, arbitrary executions--determine absolute morality in those nations? If a nation adopts a law allowing its security forces to kill at their own discretion, are those killings moral?Does Caesar trump Christ?You should stop your definitional, tautological posturing and engage the real question: What moral case does not require consideration of the context? If there is a moral absolute, then there are cases where no knowledge of context is required to determine the morality of the action. So far, you have failed to name one.Check the mirror. It is not your debate opponents who are arguing in bad faith.

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NJ's fallacy is even worse than that, PaulK. Murder is legally, rather than morally, determined. His tautology isn't even a proper tautology.

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English is a grand and supple language, and you can certainly use the word "murder" in that fashion; but the primary definition of murder hinges on unlawfulness, not moral wrongness.

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Why are you using your AdminNem account to continue debate after your NJ account was suspended?It isn't done, old boy. It's a bit low.

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Thanks, Mod. I retract my snarky sneer.

I now understand what happened and have seen Mod's confirmation of it: my apologies for jumping to conclusions.AbE: On the other hand, I see you used your admin status to argue your suspension on the Suspensions and Bannings thread, something "ordinary" members cannot do.I'll take half that apology back.Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.

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