Re: Well now, this will get into the meaning of truth. - Edit 1
Before modification by Ghavrel at 26/08/2017 01:18:27 AM
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Truth is relative to time and place. It changes. Yes, we can project our own views backwards, but I prefer to try to understand the people and the place by what they considered the truth. I am a relativist in that regard. What is true now was not considered always true and may yet change again in the future in another time and place. You and I both consider slavery to be an evil. My point is that it was not always considered an evil by all the people at the time/location. It's only relatively recently in the past 3 centuries or so that slavery has become considered an evil.
Truth is relative to time and place. It changes. Yes, we can project our own views backwards, but I prefer to try to understand the people and the place by what they considered the truth. I am a relativist in that regard. What is true now was not considered always true and may yet change again in the future in another time and place. You and I both consider slavery to be an evil. My point is that it was not always considered an evil by all the people at the time/location. It's only relatively recently in the past 3 centuries or so that slavery has become considered an evil.
We can debate on and on about this. I don't know that we will reach agreement.
I think at a certain point the debate becomes one about axioms, yes. I don't really have a problem with your reasoning here, but unless you can distinguish physical distance from temporal distance, I don't understand how you can avoid concluding that "slavery is evil" is not the truth today in certain societies--for example, slavery is an enormous source of labor in Dubai.