Is doing wrong the same as acting immorally?

[Bradski]

Another thread was heading waaay off topic (and has been closed) which started talking about morality. Objective or relative?

I suggested that there are different degrees of, for example, culpability in doing something that on the face of it would be considered wrong - or immoral. I don’t see a difference in the two terms.

There are obviously examples when you can consider one person committing an act - killing someone for example, to have acted in a less culpable manner than someone else. We have the crime of murder and we have manslaughter for example. The person guilty of manslaughter is considered to have done ‘less wrong’ than someone convicted of premeditated murder.

The statement: ‘killing is wrong’ cannot therefore stand on its own. It needs to be qualified. The punishment must be relative to the crime and the crime is therefore relative in itself.

 

[JDaniel]

Another thread was heading waaay off topic (and has been closed) which started talking about morality. Objective or relative?

I suggested that there are different degrees of, for example, culpability in doing something that on the face of it would be considered wrong - or immoral. I don’t see a difference in the two terms.

There are obviously examples when you can consider one person committing an act - killing someone for example, to have acted in a less culpable manner than someone else. We have the crime of murder and we have manslaughter for example. The person guilty of manslaughter is considered to have done ‘less wrong’ than someone convicted of premeditated murder.

The statement: ‘killing is wrong’ cannot therefore stand on its own. It needs to be qualified. The punishment must be relative to the crime and the crime is therefore relative in itself.

Bradski:

The statement does stand on its own. Despite mitigation, killing is wrong. If I fire a gun willfully, neglectfully and kill someone, that is not willful premeditation. It is willful neglect. Both are wrong, but premeditation is more wrong. There’s no rule or law that says that the morality of killing must be unidimensional.

God bless,
jd

 

[Bradski]

Let’s say that someone kills someone else. You are asked what punishment he should receive. The punishment will be relative to the crime so you’ll need to know the circumstances.

Doesn’t that mean that ‘killing is wrong’ needs qualification. It is relative to the circumstances. Relative the degree of culpability.