Acctually, I think you can. Like...say if you are out with friends. They go their house and they go into thier room. They pull out some drugs and ask you if you want any. You say no. You think about it...you really like your friends, and you want them to think you are cool.==>so you take some.<==Right there, thats wronging yourself. You don't want to, but you do anyway. You betray your conscience. You wrong yourself.
Your self is your body, mind, and soul/conscience. With smoking, your body mind might be in conflict, if we say that the mind is the "pleasure center", like, "it's not good for me, but it feels good". So, the deciding factor will often be your conscience, because it tells you what you believe is right or wrong. So it could be like:
Body: I could get sick!
Mind: It feels good!
Conscience: I could be hurting others around my (like my kids) without my consent.
If those are the three interests in your mind, two are kind of superficial, and one is like, "this is wrong". Of course, you could have other moral views about cigerettes, such as "cigerettes are good because they help keep the world's population under control (this is right)" or "whatever (this is whatever)".
In the case of "whatever" it's left for your mind and body to fight out and you're not wronging yourself, since you don't have an opinion. In the case of you thinking its wrong (or right) and then you go along with an action that's contrary to this, then you're wronging yourself, because you're going against what you believe.
Not to say that if you're not wronging yourself you're also not wronging the rest of the world.
Dualism may seem to solve some of these problems, but it invites others... the following site is a good introduction:
http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/dualism.htm
Is it possible to wrong yourself? I've always wanted to transform the following sentiments into some form of argument, but as Winnie the Pooh would say, I haven't enough fluff between my ears:
One of the first jobs I had as a teenager was painting some odd doors and windows around my Aunt Terry's house. I think she promised me $20 for the trouble, but by the time I finished the job, I was disappointed that I had sold my time, sold myself, at such a discounted price.
And I continue to have that feeling, at least once a day or once a week.
For example, I'll choose to watch an hour of TV, and then after the sitcom I realize that I just sold an hour of my life for a few chuckles... if that.
So, I'd like to be able to argue that selling one's time, one's effort, one's life, one's own self... is perhaps the greatest wrong you can ever commit against yourself...
...but in order to make that agument, I'd have to assertain: (1) How much is a human life really worth? (2) Are all human lives worth the same? (3) What units are we to measure this worth? Dollars doesn't make any cents... (4) Is an hour of life in my teens worth more or less than an hour of my life in old age?
I've heard it said that to use people and love things is wrong... the proper order of things--the virtue--is to love people and use things... so what's the difference between a person and a thing? Does claiming that persons and things are different assert dualism? What's the difference between using a person, and loving a person? My guess is that the answer to that question lies in how we define others' worth, especially others' worth as compared to our own sense of self-worth, which might be just as out-of-whack...
...as Jack White sings, "Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute, too..."
5 comments:
Acctually, I think you can. Like...say if you are out with friends. They go their house and they go into thier room. They pull out some drugs and ask you if you want any. You say no. You think about it...you really like your friends, and you want them to think you are cool.==>so you take some.<==Right there, thats wronging yourself. You don't want to, but you do anyway. You betray your conscience. You wrong yourself.
I completely agree with Dragon, doing something against your will is wronging yourself. Good example!
If that reasoning holds, then trying to quit cigarettes when your will is to enjoy them...
... or trying to restrict your diet in order to become more healthy when your will is to eat sweet and fatty food...
... would be wronging yourself?
Your self is your body, mind, and soul/conscience. With smoking, your body mind might be in conflict, if we say that the mind is the "pleasure center", like, "it's not good for me, but it feels good". So, the deciding factor will often be your conscience, because it tells you what you believe is right or wrong. So it could be like:
Body: I could get sick!
Mind: It feels good!
Conscience: I could be hurting others around my (like my kids) without my consent.
If those are the three interests in your mind, two are kind of superficial, and one is like, "this is wrong". Of course, you could have other moral views about cigerettes, such as "cigerettes are good because they help keep the world's population under control (this is right)" or "whatever (this is whatever)".
In the case of "whatever" it's left for your mind and body to fight out and you're not wronging yourself, since you don't have an opinion. In the case of you thinking its wrong (or right) and then you go along with an action that's contrary to this, then you're wronging yourself, because you're going against what you believe.
Not to say that if you're not wronging yourself you're also not wronging the rest of the world.
chq-
Dualism may seem to solve some of these problems, but it invites others... the following site is a good introduction:
http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/dualism.htm
Is it possible to wrong yourself? I've always wanted to transform the following sentiments into some form of argument, but as Winnie the Pooh would say, I haven't enough fluff between my ears:
One of the first jobs I had as a teenager was painting some odd doors and windows around my Aunt Terry's house. I think she promised me $20 for the trouble, but by the time I finished the job, I was disappointed that I had sold my time, sold myself, at such a discounted price.
And I continue to have that feeling, at least once a day or once a week.
For example, I'll choose to watch an hour of TV, and then after the sitcom I realize that I just sold an hour of my life for a few chuckles... if that.
So, I'd like to be able to argue that selling one's time, one's effort, one's life, one's own self... is perhaps the greatest wrong you can ever commit against yourself...
...but in order to make that agument, I'd have to assertain:
(1) How much is a human life really worth?
(2) Are all human lives worth the same?
(3) What units are we to measure this worth? Dollars doesn't make any cents...
(4) Is an hour of life in my teens worth more or less than an hour of my life in old age?
I've heard it said that to use people and love things is wrong... the proper order of things--the virtue--is to love people and use things... so what's the difference between a person and a thing? Does claiming that persons and things are different assert dualism? What's the difference between using a person, and loving a person? My guess is that the answer to that question lies in how we define others' worth, especially others' worth as compared to our own sense of self-worth, which might be just as out-of-whack...
...as Jack White sings, "Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute, too..."
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