Is it wrong to judge how people behaved in the past based on today's morals?

Is it wrong to judge how people behaved in the past based on today's morals? Jul 17, 2018 12:35:45 GMT

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Post by Toasted Cheese on Jul 17, 2018 12:35:45 GMT

Jul 16, 2018 13:59:17 GMT Lugh said:

Jul 6, 2018 9:43:12 GMT phludowin said:

Is it wrong to judge the behaviour of people in non-modern western societies by standards of modern western societies?

My opinion: It's ok to judge them, if their country signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and if their society violates them.

However, in the past, there was no Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So judging them is more difficult.
But some people did it anyway. Nuremberg trials anyone?

who cares about the law? The law is completely irrelevant, there's no moral obligation for you to obey the law.

Exactly! The law is irrelevant if one isn't breaking it, because it is of no concern or consequence at that moment. If we are informed that a law is broken by an action that opposes the ideal of law, then the law is then again irrelevant because it wasn't heeded, regardless of one being aware of unaware it was law. The ideal is born out of a moral and the moral is abstract and intangible, hence is the law.