It annoys me when someone wants a favor and they get pissy that you don't respond immediately (1 Viewer)

[Selfmate]

I think that ethics isn’t only about the method, but also the reason (and just subjective). It’s just that some methods (like threatening someone with a gun) don’t lend themselves as nicely to ethical acts as some other methods may (though I’m not saying that they don’t exist at all). At least when it comes to general everyday life of the average citizen, because if the same question is applied to governments that can be massively different (though there are also many unethical government acts that involve pointing a gun at someone). All the other advantages you mentioned (beauty, height, ect) also have all those nuances too. But if you’re robbing a bank, while you might get some advantage because of height, usually the workers will find guns pointed at them more convincing to give up than you being tall. Though again, you can definitely use height to your advantage in unethical ways too. But often it’s not able to play as big of a role as other methods in those contexts .

But also ethics is just incredibly subjective so there’s that

I'm not necessarily thinking using height to rob a bank per se but to use one's beauty or let's say charm to charm the workers to obtain more inside information pertaining to the bank's security or in a non-violent situation let's say to charm a person to obtain more favourable loans as a result of one's beauty whereas in absence of said beauty one would not be able to such favourable terms or inside information...

whilst ethics are not laws per se it's generally implied that such norms and morals are determined by the society that one is in since using weapons would have been perfectly fine in cavemen times but not so much now...

 

[Ahsoka]

I'm not necessarily thinking using height to rob a bank per se but to use one's beauty or let's say charm to charm the workers to obtain more inside information pertaining to the bank's security or in a non-violent situation let's say to charm a person to obtain more favourable loans as a result of one's beauty whereas in absence of said beauty one would not be able to such favourable terms or inside information...

whilst ethics are not laws per se it's generally implied that such norms and morals are determined by the society that one is in since using weapons would have been perfectly fine in cavemen times but not so much now...

Right, I get that you weren’t saying that being tall would somehow make you able to rob a bank better because of physical reasons, but rather do other things also considered unethical. When I was taking about height being used to rob a bank, I was more so thinking similarly to what you suggested by charming someone into giving insider details. And unethical things from that can happen for sure. It’s just that some things overall lend themselves better to things that are more widely considered unethical (like violent crime). No matter the advantage you have you can definitely do something unethical with it ofc. And then as to the question about whether it’s unethical to use advantages you have to generally get ahead in life, that’s just really complicated, nuanced, and context dependent imo to really say a whole lot about it.

Ethics definitely are strongly dependent on in cultural and societal norms ofc. But there’s still a ton of variation based on the individual, the social context, and other environmental factors. And the closer you get to the division point between ethical vs not ethical, the more the individual subjectivity can play a role. As an extreme example, most people will agree that kidnapping and torturing an innocent person for no reason except fun is unethical because to most that’s way below the threshold of what’s often viewed as ethical. But for a less extreme case, like asking if it’s ethical to steal a random well off persons burger to feed a helpless kid who is on the brink of starvation, people will have more variation based on how ethical that think it is, and that variation will largely be more fueled by their own individual experiences in life rather than being fueled just by the societal norms they live in.

 

[Selfmate]

Right, I get that you weren’t saying that being tall would somehow make you able to rob a bank better because of physical reasons, but rather do other things also considered unethical. When I was taking about height being used to rob a bank, I was more so thinking similarly to what you suggested by charming someone into giving insider details. And unethical things from that can happen for sure. It’s just that some things overall lend themselves better to things that are more widely considered unethical (like violent crime). No matter the advantage you have you can definitely do something unethical with it ofc. And then as to the question about whether it’s unethical to use advantages you have to generally get ahead in life, that’s just really complicated, nuanced, and context dependent imo to really say a whole lot about it.

Ethics definitely are strongly dependent on in cultural and societal norms ofc. But there’s still a ton of variation based on the individual, the social context, and other environmental factors. And the closer you get to the division point between ethical vs not ethical, the more the individual subjectivity can play a role. As an extreme example, most people will agree that kidnapping and torturing an innocent person for no reason except fun is unethical because to most that’s way below the threshold of what’s often viewed as ethical. But for a less extreme case, like asking if it’s ethical to steal a random well off persons burger to feed a helpless kid who is on the brink of starvation, people will have more variation based on how ethical that think it is, and that variation will largely be more fueled by their own individual experiences in life rather than being fueled just by the societal norms they live in.

indeed (I can't think of anything off the top of my head right now but I agree with mostly what you said)
also I blame you for derailing the OP's topic *tsk tsk tsk* lol

 

[RandAlThor]

Totally!