Faust ([info]bigod26) wrote,
2006-05-16 21:41:00

philosophy



the is a philosophical question.


is it right/ok to use a companies product even if you believe that the company is evil/immoral?
the company is evil/immoral, in it's actions and is just an extension of the owner/pres beliefs, which are evil/immoral.

does it make it right/ok if the product is used to promote good/moral actions?

sub Q for each of the above:
   what if you paid for the product?
   what if the product is free, but has ads in it?
   what if the product is free but closed source?
   what if the product is free and open source?

i'm keeping it generic on purpose. because i don't want your opinion tainted.
Tags: philosophy

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  • 24 comments

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 05:16:16 UTC 6 years ago

With the way the question is worded ("is it right/ok"), I would say - sure. Especially if you don't care about your own morality. (-
Now, whether it's moral or not is a different question. In my opinion, it is moral, especially if you don't know about the company's wrongdoings. But even if you do, supporting a company is one thing, and if there is a way to minimize my support for it, I would go for a different option, but if that's the only way to accomplish a good/moral action, then I'd go for it.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 05:34:34 UTC 6 years ago

ya i should have said good/moral not right/ok.
k, because myspace is owned by News Corp, its chief executive officer is Rupert Murdoch. i believe that he is immoral, and most if not all of the companies that news corp owns promote his agenda.

the reason i ask is because there are people who have myspace's that promote opposing opinions to Rupert's. and if it's a mute point because it's being distributed thought his company. also, they drive people to go to his companies site and thus making him more money.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 05:49:10 UTC 6 years ago

That's pretty funny.

I don't consider promoting opposing views to the head of the corporation an ethical thing to do. If they, on the other hand, used myspace to help children in Uganda (and I really have no clue how they would do that), that would be a moral thing to do. Disagreeing with the head of the corporation's ideas doesn't make them any more moral than an average flame war participant.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 06:02:34 UTC 6 years ago

yes, but they are using his companies site to do it. and if people sign up for myspace just because they want to comment or whatever they are now using the site. which generates the company more money.

so image a flame war on microsoft's web site about bill gates. and imagine that the page is filled with ads that generate MS more money because people just view the page.
i think they should just move the flame war to another server that generates openbsd money.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 06:05:31 UTC 6 years ago

The ethical implications of the war are irrelevant though. People who are using myspace to flame the owner of myspace are simply stupid. They are not doing anything morally good or bad, it's morally neutral. That's what I was trying to say in the previous comment.
And yes, I agree - they generate the company a lot of money while talking about how unethical they are, but as I mentioned earlier, that gives an idea of their IQ level rather than morality.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 06:23:11 UTC 6 years ago

well, i think a lot of people are ignorant to the fact that he has control over the company/site.

i think i didn't explain the exact topic, Rupert Murdoch, is a HUGE supporter of the republican party, thus the pres and everything he supports. it has been proves from internal memos and documents that Rupert promotes the republican parties/pres's agenda through most of it's media outlets. so it's like one big propaganda machine.

so if you have a page on myspace to says "down with the republican party...", and if you drive people to your myspace, aren't you giving money them money AKA support. i think you already said yes.

well, because i was going to spam all the people on there informing them of there ignorance. also telling them to switch to live journal or blogger.
but, i wanted to first get an intelligent opinion.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 06:26:57 UTC 6 years ago

You have yet to get one.

And yes, I understood the issue. And as I said, the fact that they are doing that shows their level of intelligence rather than morality.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 06:33:48 UTC 6 years ago

get what? an "intelligent opinion"
no, i mean yes. i was talking about you have the "intelligent opinion".
well, until i get a smarter one.

holy WTF, i think i could troll the myspace browser using a script then spam all the users, anyone can message anyone... sweet! i'll do it in the lib.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 05:21:01 UTC 6 years ago

BTW, I can't see why philosophers are so overwhelmingly concerned with ethics. It seems like it's a somehow separate topic - so full in itself that it could be taught as a separate discipline and not as part of philosophy. The fact that a lot of famous philosophers (e.g. Kant) were concerned with ethics shouldn't lead to a conclusion that anything to do with ethics is a philosophical issue, though it does.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 05:42:34 UTC 6 years ago

according to wikipedia ethics should be one part of philosophy.

really philosophy is just an excuse to sit around all day, talk, drink frappuccinos at starbucks and then watch a movie. LOL.
so i'm switching majors thursday. :)

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 05:46:47 UTC 6 years ago

Philosophy is a very important discipline that is mistakengly believed to be a 'bullshit' major though in fact it is the complete opposite. People who say that to write a philosophy paper you need to bs your way through really have no idea what they should write about.
And yes, I know that ethics is a part of philosophy, which has historically been proven so. What I'm saying is that there really is no reason for it to be that way - ethics should be a separate study (though heavily influenced by and supporting philosophy - the way mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering do).

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 05:53:34 UTC 6 years ago

yes and yes, but the phil department would bitch about it, they would also add another class to the themes. because of a certain 316 teacher.
or are you saying that is should be focus, like applied mathematics.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 05:59:57 UTC 6 years ago

I'm not even talking about restructuring university requirements - it's just that ethics is large enough to be a separate class. And no, they probably wouldn't add another class to the themes, they'd just call it ETHC 316 instead of PHIL 316.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 06:05:24 UTC 6 years ago

btw, i was joking. now MIS and business on the other hand...

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 06:06:31 UTC 6 years ago

Yes, I understood that.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 05:52:43 UTC 6 years ago

Hm. Why wait till Thursday? Banner access is open 24/7.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 05:54:49 UTC 6 years ago

i have to have a teacher sign the switch... lame.

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 06:01:15 UTC 6 years ago

That is quite inconvenient, I agree.

On the other note, it's not like computer science majors don't sit around at Starbucks (c)(R)(TM)(OMFG) all day.

[info]bigod26

May 17 2006, 06:04:13 UTC 6 years ago

LOL or CIA agents with masters degree in number theory

[info]pegasd

May 17 2006, 06:08:07 UTC 6 years ago

It just shows how good you have to be to work for CIA - even though there are so many projects to do, the employees still manage to spend 85% of their time at Starbucks (WTF).

[info]maliceandroid

May 18 2006, 07:17:51 UTC 6 years ago

as long winded as that was, i agree with pegas for the most part. thats all i feel like saying.

[info]bigod26

May 18 2006, 07:25:51 UTC 6 years ago

so you are going to stop using myspace and use livejournal again?
^_^

you need to change your pic to the new leet one, that some really kool guy made from myspace.

[info]bigod26

May 18 2006, 07:51:53 UTC 6 years ago

btw, i wasn't talking about you, it's someone else who hate bush more then you do.
i feel that people should be informed and given a good balanced argument, then they can make there own decision. like you did.

[info]pegasd

May 18 2006, 13:01:53 UTC 6 years ago

Wow, people agree with me? I wonder where I went wrong.

strcmp("popular opinion", "leet"); doesn't return 0.
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