Is it important to act ethically in a lucid dream? I say yes, it’s just as important as in our waking life.
Doesn’t ethics usually apply to interactions resulting in some sort of effect on another being?
If I knew why a had such power levitating, I might now how or why to use it or restrain it.
How would you act unethically in a lucid dream?
There’s nothing unethical at all about beating to death someone that you know is just a figment of your imagination, surely?
Can such a thing be controlled that way?
Maybe I should have used the word morality instead? I think I should have, in hindsight.
I just mean is it important to treat people (or other animals, etc.) well in a dream? - assuming you have the power to choose how to act when you are dreaming.
I’m not sure exactly what you just said. Could you rephrase maybe?
Don’t you think, if you did that, you’d be training your mind to be more violent?
Do you mean can we control the content and direction of our dreams while we are, in fact, dreaming? Yes, this seems to be possible.
No I don’t. Just like I don’t think playing grand theft auto is training my mind to be more violent.
But even if I was - I would still fail to see why this counts as unethical.
I think maybe it depends on your attitude when you’re doing it. I think some people, when they play violent video games, are training their minds to be more violent.
You’d have to explain your reasons as to why you would “still fail to see why this counts as unethical”. At the moment, I can’t think of what the reasoning could be.
There’s just nothing wrong with training your mind to be more violent. It doesn’t seem to violate any ethical principle that I can think of, nor does there seem to be anything abhorrent about it.
I would think the fact that it makes you more likely to think or act violently in the future is enough.
What do you mean by “ethical principles”?
At best, partaking in imaginary violence is going to desensitise you to violence. This might have positive as well as negative consequences: not all use of violence is bad.
Basically anything. You hadn’t given any reason at all to think that it was unethical so I was leaving it open for you to come up with something.
Let’s try to keep this simpler, where possible. My question isn’t about situational versus non-situational ethics. Do you act in what society would call an ethical or moral manner because society requires you to? Because you don’t want to hurt real people? Because the act itself is “good”, aside from the consequences? Because it makes you happy?
Also, I’m reminded of a song lyric I’ve always liked - “in the night you hide from the madman you’re longing to be - but it all comes out on the inside, eventually…”
I don’t understand why you think I hadn’t or haven’t given a reason. Intentional actions always train the mind. We are always creating habitual tendencies with our thoughts and actions. In that sense then, there is little to no difference between moral considerations in a lucid dream versus in waking life - even if the entire basis for having these considerations in the first place may stem from waking life considerations. Propensities fostered during dreams will have effects during waking life. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying you’ll murder someone when you wake up or anything.
There was nothing complicated about my claim whatsoever. It was incredibly simple. It was that not all use of violence is bad, and desensitising yourself to violence is in no way a bad thing. You might one day, for example, need to defend yourself and others using a certain level of violence, and if you are too squeamish you might fail. Ergo, desensitising yourself to violence may be a useful process and is not necessarily bad.
If this is too complicated, then why are you trying to talk about situational ethics?
Lucid dreams are different than deep unconcious dreams.
Part of your waking self is present. Maybe even the room you’re sleeping in.
Ethics in this case is close to knowing what things truly symbolize to you personally and what attitude you then take towards them, even after you awake fully.
You said “not all use of violence is bad”. I’m saying ok, but that’s not what this thread is about.
I agree, well said.
Thank you, good thread.