Monday, February 4, 2008

Do one to others...

In class last week we talked about how different religious texts and philosophers have the golden rule, whether its "Do one to others..." the point is that you should treat other people the way you would want to be treated. We talked about how relative and subjective that saying is. The way you want to be treated may not be the way someone else wants to be treated due to culture etc.

I liked Kant's version of this saying the best. He said that you should ask yourself "Would I want everyone else doing this?"
I think it is empowering on an individual level because I immediately thought about boycotts.
I don't drink Coca Cola products because it is an evil company who is responsible for numerous human rights violations in Latin America and India. I boycott Coca Cola and people think I'm silly because 1 person can't change anything. If these people who think I'm dumb for boycotting coca cola looked at the world through Kant's version of this quote, they would have to boycott coca cola because if everybody boycotted Coca Cola, they would be out of business or would have to address their human rights violations.
So, thank you Kant.

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