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livestrong's avatar

Do you agree that praise and blame are just random?

Asked by livestrong (213points) October 31st, 2010

Do you believe that morality is just a matter of luck? Or that praise and blame are just random??? I think that we all have choices of doing what we think is right and wrong which means that praise and blame are far from random. What do you think?

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6 Answers

Joybird's avatar

Therer are studies on morality and ethics. These aren’t random. There are universal ideas that the majority of humans agree upon BUT what occurs in reality are contexts that bring paradox into the picture when trying to determine the moral thing to do. Things are nicely black and white and the chains of events given certain choices may create other morally dilemmas.
Praise used effectively also isn’t a random event. When a trainer is gifted at shaping behavior they understand how to most effectively apply praise. It isn’t done disingenuinely nor lavishly. It is used with discernment.
Assigning blame often doesn’t meet with the kinds of outcomes we think it should. Events are more often then not the result of a combination of precipitating events and therefore assigning blame often produces nothing more than resentments. Blame is assigned because someone wants to extract some form of restitution. It is also assigned so that someone can take the fall for the rest of those involved. It is better to examine patterns of thinking, behavior and behavioral chains of events so that you can determine what things led to a less than desirable outcome and change these things for the next time.

Nullo's avatar

Nope. Praise and blame are most helpfully allotted in the aftermath of a deliberate and perhaps quantifiable action/inaction. Mis-attribution of motive creeps in, to be sure, but a person who does the right thing every time is pretty hard to misinterpret.

wundayatta's avatar

They aren’t random. I can’t even imagine how anyone would think they were random. It’s not like a lot of people walk around in life, flipping coins at every choice point.

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nebule's avatar

I’m not sure that I understand what you mean exactly?? That we can just randomly asign praise and blame to anything we choose? It certainly sounds like it’s wrapped in the question of morality, of which there are many stances on the subject.

I think in the type of society that we live in that there has to be an objective (and there is) morality. I think we also have an intrinsic knowledge of what is good given mental stability…

josie's avatar

No. There is an objective basis for morality. Praise is justifiably earned. So is blame.

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