Moral and Epistemic Relativism

[Venus007]

I need to post this to get the ball rolling or I will never post (I am somewhat shy of posting things of substance and I have to just do it)

At a very basic primitive level I think that acts are right or wrong in and of themselves. Not all acts, of course. I believe that for us as a species the acts that are “right” are the ones that preserve our survival both as an individual and as a species. As well as acts that preserve our individual autonomy (meaning that if I think it is right to enslave people because it will help me be a more viable human creature (viable meaning more likely to produce more successful offspring to adulthood and subsequent breeding) that is wrong because it takes another’s autonomy.)
Outside of this very simple idea of right and wrong everything else is a cultural/societal imposition.

My ideals of right and wrong are not based in a belief of a “higher standard” outside myself either by an idea of a deity or of some natural law written on our hearts. My idea of right and wrong hinge on autonomy and species preservation.

Somewhere mixed in here is also an idea that individuals who cannot choose for themselves, children, individuals who are mentally incompetent, delirious, unconscious etc have the right to be protected by society until they are able to make autonomous choices or in the event that they cannot make autonomous choices to be given as much leeway as possible stopping short of the destruction of another or self harm.