When confronted with so many varied competing philosophical theories in the

When confronted with so many varied competing philosophical theories in the

When confronted with so many varied competing philosophical theories in the realms of truth, mind, free will, identity, etc, I find myself lacking the abilities (and the time) needed in order to properly evaluate them and to decide upon my own personal opinions. As such, I end up being a bit of a fence sitter on many subjects, sometimes left with residual beliefs I can’t really justify nor feel able to explain how I got them. This doesn’t bother me much as I’m sure I’m not on my own in this, and it doesn’t really affect my day to day decisions. But in other areas, such as religion, politics and ethics, it would seem I have to stand somewhere. With religion I’ve done lots of thinking and reading and feel fairly comfortable with my position, deciding long ago that time could be better spent thinking about other things (I’m not persuaded by the theistic arguments I’ve encountered and I could spend an eternity exploring all religions). But with politics and ethics I feel a responsibility to hold an opinion but really struggle. I feel this particularly strongly with ethics, being a parent I’m aware I’m passing on my values, and the consequences of my decisions more often than not affect people I care about. Most of the people I’ve discussed morality and ethics with (mainly on the internet) it would seem are relativists or subjectivists and I can’t really refute their arguments. But at the same time wonder then on what do they base decisions with broad consequences. If it’s as arbitrary as they suggest then surely ethical reasoning can’t really get going. And we have to face this stuff whether we like it or not. Is it enough to say that I base my moral decision making on a sort of basic concern for the welfare of others? What would be your advice to those of us overwhelmed by the number and diversity of these ideas with very limited time and abilities on how far to probe into these issues? I’d bet there are a huge proportion of people who’ve never really considered the foundations of their particular moral beliefs, but should they? Do they even need to in order to live well? Apologies for the long question(s), and thanks for the opportunity to ask.

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