Is it an intellectual or a moral virtue to care about what other people think? Let’s set aside the tactical part of this question (we might want to at least pretend to care what other people think if it will make them like us better), and focus on the principle. It’s clear that other people aren’t necessarily right simply because they’re not us, but it’s also clear that some version of the modesty argument recently made on this blog should make us take seriously the possibility that other people in other circumstances are able to see something that we can’t, which goes the other way.
A decent respect for the opinions of mankind would require them to *listen* to the opinions of mankind, and not just declare their own opinion and reasons. It takes a pretty low threshold of respect to bother to explain your reasons to them; it takes a lot higher threshold to bother to listen to them.
Could I correctly say that “caring what other people think” can be more precisely defined as accountability?
I've read a variety of studies over the years citing how people respond in certain sized groups; the smaller the group the more pronounced the effect on overall behavior, positive that is.
I'm new to this blog, but I'll read some older posts in a bit, but I don't know that accountability (i.e. caring what you think about me) has to be exclusively moral or intellectual in its nature.
What does spring to mind, is how this relates to natural law, and all of the old questions that brings up. "Is morality objective?" which gets to what is natural in our moral compass, or not natural for that matter. I think the inevitable effect of accountability within groups goes a long way in proving the objectivity of morality.
A decent respect for the opinions of mankind would require them to *listen* to the opinions of mankind, and not just declare their own opinion and reasons. It takes a pretty low threshold of respect to bother to explain your reasons to them; it takes a lot higher threshold to bother to listen to them.
Could I correctly say that “caring what other people think” can be more precisely defined as accountability?
I've read a variety of studies over the years citing how people respond in certain sized groups; the smaller the group the more pronounced the effect on overall behavior, positive that is.
I'm new to this blog, but I'll read some older posts in a bit, but I don't know that accountability (i.e. caring what you think about me) has to be exclusively moral or intellectual in its nature.
What does spring to mind, is how this relates to natural law, and all of the old questions that brings up. "Is morality objective?" which gets to what is natural in our moral compass, or not natural for that matter. I think the inevitable effect of accountability within groups goes a long way in proving the objectivity of morality.