Thesis My personal moral philosophy is a garbled mess.
Premise 1 I am, as any college student who has taken one or two philosophy classes is, a dyed-in-the-wool utilitarian.
Premise 2 When my wife is annoyed by something I did, or forgot to do, I invariably argue that my motives were pure and, thus, should be free of blame.
Conclusion Premise 1 posits that I adhere to a utilitarian ethical framework. Premise 2 posits that I argue against being blamed for my actions from a deontological perspective. Thus, I am a wishy-washy yahoo who uses whichever moral philosophy is convenient at the moment; QED.
I enjoy putting arguments/realizations like these on the mantle as trophies for every time I’ve been wrong.
Sometimes I’m asked about this embarrassment of riches. How come I have so many?
They don’t know I have more upstairs. What they see down here are just my favs, the real whoppers.
Anyway my go-to response of course is “why how many do most people have” then offer to freshen their drink.
IMO it is worth being proud of the times you realized you were wrong. Most people live unexamined or underexamined lives. Having fewer moments when you realized you were wrong is not even remotely close to having been wrong fewer times. If anything it indicates the opposite: those with fewer wrongness-realizations will continue to be wrong in myriad subtle and humorously obvious ways.
I love this response because it might make the other person realize they have no clue how often they’re wrong.