Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated

Ethics — perhaps the notion of treating others how you would like to be treated is a bad one. Perhaps the notion of the golden rule isn’t great.

My thoughts:

Where the golden rule is bad

Let us consider me as a meat-eater — if I treated others (vegans) the way I would like to be treated. This would be bad, because I think:

I LOVE EATING MEAT! Thus everyone else will love eating meat. I will be a good and virtuous person and give a free T-bone steak to every other human I meet.

Everyone is different.

Everybody is different. The notion of ‘equality’ is a bit misguided. The notion of equality is:

All humans are the same, and thus should be treated the same.

But also inherent in this notion is:

All humans think the same, behave the same, have the same hormones, have the same thought patterns, and same end-desires and goals in life.

This is where utilitarianism (the betterment of all mankind, equally, to maximize happiness and maximize comfort and minimize pain and suffering) is flawed and wrong.

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

Stoic Collage ERIC KIM -resized

Dictate your meaning and purpose in your life with ZEN OF ERIC:


Philosophical Essays

Masters of Philosophy »

Personal Philosophy »

Stoicism »

Zen Philosophy »

Life Lessons »

Learn more: Start Here >