> My idea of what flourishing means is probably quite different from, say, Peter *Thiel’s.*
>If you ally ourselves with the powers that be, we you being hijacked by these people.
Not quite sure what you mean on this second one but I think you dropped a word, and this line seems pretty important to your first point.
>*Utilitarians* are particularly vulnerable to this kind of thinking- treating the actor as if they were acting from outside time and society.
***
This was a really lovely set of reflections though! Your last point is probably going to stick with me for a while:
> Even as I’ve worried about doing the wrong thing, I’ve tried to take pity on those who have done the wrong by trying to understand the stories they might have been fooled by in their own mind. Yet as I’ve reflected on that, I’ve been terrified about what it might say of me as person, that I sought mercy. Do I just want to live in a merciful moral universe because I want to create a moral universe that could excuse me if the things I’m afraid I might have unknowingly done, I have indeed done?
I share this fear. I'm not sure what to do about it other than to keep being charitable and merciful. I prefer a world where there is enough slack to forgive mistakes over a world where there is no charity.
Some quick typos you might want to correct:
> My idea of what flourishing means is probably quite different from, say, Peter *Thiel’s.*
>If you ally ourselves with the powers that be, we you being hijacked by these people.
Not quite sure what you mean on this second one but I think you dropped a word, and this line seems pretty important to your first point.
>*Utilitarians* are particularly vulnerable to this kind of thinking- treating the actor as if they were acting from outside time and society.
***
This was a really lovely set of reflections though! Your last point is probably going to stick with me for a while:
> Even as I’ve worried about doing the wrong thing, I’ve tried to take pity on those who have done the wrong by trying to understand the stories they might have been fooled by in their own mind. Yet as I’ve reflected on that, I’ve been terrified about what it might say of me as person, that I sought mercy. Do I just want to live in a merciful moral universe because I want to create a moral universe that could excuse me if the things I’m afraid I might have unknowingly done, I have indeed done?
I share this fear. I'm not sure what to do about it other than to keep being charitable and merciful. I prefer a world where there is enough slack to forgive mistakes over a world where there is no charity.