How can I make sense of this?

Question

If what feels good isn't always right and what feels bad isn't always wrong, then how can i make sense of my morals/values

Answer 1

Use your common sense.

Answer 2

Easiest way would be to discard the right/wrong distinction.

Now your personal history makes sense: you did this, that, and the other thing to feel good, or to avoid feeling bad. You have the beginnings of a descriptive ethics.

Analyze that history and you might be able to isolate your authentic 'values.' Compare your identified values to the identified values of others (with their personal histories), and you'll create a 'ethics' of higher order.

Keep playing that game.

You should throw rocks at people who use the word 'should' before you've been properly introduced.

Answer 3

What feels good and isn't right will always have an undertone that you will recognize but will ignore because of the heightened sense of pleasure. What feels bad to you IS wrong. Simply. The use of word feels is the problem. You shouldn't trust your emotions. You should know from what you have been taught, what is right or wrong. Trust your gut instinct. That never fails you.

Answer 4

the truth is there is no line, the main thought of right and wrong is what society considers right and wrong, that is the main fault of the judicial system, a group of people get to decide whats right and wrong, somethings are obviuos while other things are not, in the fairy tales told to us before sleep there is always the good and the bad, in real life, taking in the perspective of everyone, no one is ever the bad guy, you must base your values on what you believe in i guess, but then they might be considerd socialy wrong,

Answer 5

Something may feel good and be bad for us but we are all born to know right from wrong and if we have a conscience then we know. If we love only our self and no one else then we would not care whether it is bad or good for us, we would just do it. So it really depends on how much we care about others and their feelings, etc. for us to judge what we are doing is good or bad for us.

Answer 6

you cannot make sense of your morals or values... if you dont have them... Your morals/values is rooted in your personality, shaped by your upbringing and the different factors that affects your personality. what is moral may not be necessarily legal, and what is legal may not be moral....what counts is your personal perception on the face at hand and your ability to act on it based on your own discretion and judgment Acting on it...well thats the essence of you and standing on what you believe in, thats what makes you you.

Answer 7

Your feelings such as pleasure and pain are lower capacities of yourself, they are not very different than any other mammal. Your ability to reason and think critically is what makes a person, use those skills and you can make better sense of what you ought to value.

Answer 8

Why are your morals and values connected to how things feel?
Are you living in your ID still?

Answer 9

"Enlightened hedonism" (eh?) is a kind of "if it feels good, do it" approach to keeping dopamine levels perking.

This is clearly not always the wisest approach.

At its upper reaches, eh runs into the Pascalian wager, i.e., what if a lifetime of "love God completely, love colleague as Self, and love as Christ Jesus, Truth, loves" gains infinite reward--that's an acceptable wager. Then, eternal life, joy, bliss, and increase clearly is eh's better part of wisdom.

Hence, the first question then becomes "Is God?" This "God" is the God of "Love God completely...", i.e., infinite pure transcendent, eternal, increasing divine Love, Truth, Mind, Life, and so on, and Taught by Christ Jesus even today to the teachable in God's will, which is always Good.

Morality is thus a function of knowing God as "still, small voice," "inner childlike inner sense/innocence," and suchlike: attunement, "keeping My Word," which is Life, Truth, Love, and so on.

At this juncture, most need Teachers of the Higher Life, in order to attune, purify, realize what Plotinus knew and termed "One Mind Soul."

Some contemporary authors (not to mention the Psalms, Saint John's Gospel, Saint Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle," and so on):

"Climb the Highest Mountain" and "The Masters and Their Retreats," Mark Prophet;

"To Live Within," Lizelle Reymond;

"Men in White Apparel" and "Watch Your Dreams," Ann Ree Colton;

"Man, Master of His Destiny" and "Light Is a Living Spirit," O. M. Aivanhov;

"The Path of Virtue," Jonathan Murro;

"The Beautiful Story of a Master," Louise-Marie Frenette;

"Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer," Yvonne von Fettweis;

"Entering the Circle" and "The Master of Lucid Dreams," Olga Kharitidi;

"Psychoenergetic Science," Dr. William Tiller, http://www.tiller.org

"The Way of Inner Vigilance," Salim Michael;

"Testimony of Light," Helen Greaves;

"Messages from Heaven," Patricia Kirmond;

"Gandhi, the Man: The Story of His Transformation," Eknath Easwaran, Ph.D., http://www.easwaran.org

"Autobiography of a Yogi," Yogananda, http://www.yogananda-srf.org

"Life before Life," Jim Tucker, M.D.;

"The Field," Lynne McTaggart;

"Extraordinary Knowing," Elizabeth Mayer;

"The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock, http://www.divinecosmos.com

"Expecting Adam," Martha Beck, Ph.D.;

"The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis.

best regards,

j.

Answer 10

It depends on the moral values of the culture you're born into. Simple as that. American culture has or is becoming essentially an amoral one: it has no moral values. You take it from there.

Wotan