Reply To: Is there no right/wrong? Is it only perception?

[miljacic]

I’d ask – when exactly can a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ escape from being perceived by at least someone? If one particular ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is not perceived by anybody (in his/hers heart/mind) then… does it even exist on earth? Where would it exist, in some metaphysical depository beyond humanity? And if they do, can we even talk about them? Is this a metaphysics discussion board?

I’d think that until a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ is perceived by at least one living person, it is completely irrelevant for consideration. And it doesn’t have to be objective, it could be subjective too…. I can imagine a lonely man feeling something to be ‘right’ without anyone else sharing. This is historically what a hero figure does anyhow. But then he needs to get others to share that feeling/perception.

My point is, I guess, that inasmuch as rights and wrongs are something beyond perception (even some very limited, symbolic, perception) they are irrelevant for human discussion. They can be subject of prayer and eastern meditation, maybe. Rights and wrongs lose nothing by being called ‘only perceptions’ because perceptions are the very foundation of human action, and that’s what we are talking about here.

Sure, there may exist metaphysical origins totally beyond any human perception but what can we say about such abstract, transcendent, unobservable entities? Let’s wait until at least someone starts perceiving them, then do something about it.

So, in a way, ‘is there right or wrong or there are only perceptions?’ sounds to me as this: ‘is there life on earth or there are only material objects we call bodies?’ Yes, both is true, there is life on earth and there are bodies, and they are pretty much inseparable because life never comes without a vehicle called ‘the body’. So also, a right or a wrong never comes without a vehicle called ‘perception’.