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For my philosophy final. From William James:
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Outward goods and evils semm practically indistinguishable except in so far as they result in getting moral judgments made about them. But then the moral judgments seem the main thing, and the outward facts mere perishing instruments for their production. This is subjectivism.
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I've read this a dozen times and feel like I'm just able to scratch the surface.
Any help greatly appreciated.
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If you can supply us with an English translation, maybe we can help you.
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Sorry, this was an excerpt of the reading, I was hoping someone might have recognized it.
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I'm not schooled in philosophy...here is my take.
Part of the problem is probably that the process of applying moral judgements is very automatic, so 'outward goods and evils' may seem quite different to you. I don't know how good my examples will be here (i'm sure i can do a lot better), but:
Killing a dog versus slaughtering a pig...is there a real difference here? The biggest difference is how we react. One is a routine part of food production, the other is regarded (in the us) as animal cruelty.
Screwing a 16 year old, screwing a 30 yr old...looks the same to me...one is 'immoral'.
More generally, everyting we do or say is the same kind of thing...we are just acting. Moving limbs, vocal cords, whatever...interacting with the world. Subjectivism divides these actions up based on 'moral' or 'immoral', and says that at since all these actions are physically in the same category, all that is left is our moral judgements about them...
bleh...just a quick and dirty thought...
Edit:
Wikipedia seems to say that I missed the point a bit...