For starters, do you actually believe that, or are you just playing devil's advocate?
Discussing the definition of evil can certainly be an enlightening exercise, and people have been writing about it for thousands of years. But if, say, you see a guy roofie a stranger's drink, you don't sit back and ponder whether the rape he's planning has meaning in the grand sense. You do something about it. Or at least I hope you do.
> For starters, do you actually believe that, or are you just playing devil's advocate?
I do actually believe morality is essentially a preference, like taste for chocolate. I have read some works arguing the opposite; I did not find them convincing, as very few presented any kind of evidence (scientific or otherwise).
Moral relativism is the agnostic position, anything else must be supported by evidence, or it's just faith.
> if, say, you see a guy roofie a stranger's drink, you don't sit back and ponder whether the rape he's planning has meaning in the grand sense. You do something about it. Or at least I hope you do.
This question arises from the confusion that moral universalists get into due to their own position. They assume the universally shared moral value that if two things have equal worth (in this case, my morality and the roofier's), one must treat them the same. But one shouldn't assume such shared values, let alone with moral relativists.
I can recognize that my morality is no "better" than the roofier's, and still stop him, just because I want to. A football player doesn't have to assume they are more worthy of winning to try to score more than their opponents.
Yes, I don't sit bank and ponder because I won't be able to know his true intention (because he is not me). I can only response based on what I think about the situation. If I think its evil I might try to stop but if I think its not than might I not. There no one true objective answer. Ultimately its boil down to my preference.
Discussing the definition of evil can certainly be an enlightening exercise, and people have been writing about it for thousands of years. But if, say, you see a guy roofie a stranger's drink, you don't sit back and ponder whether the rape he's planning has meaning in the grand sense. You do something about it. Or at least I hope you do.