Two Schools of Thought

There are two schools of thought about what to do with how we're born.

Both are moral arguments.

Both are common arguments.

And both are right in what they affirm, but wrong in what they deny.

The first school of thought is that since we're born this way, it's moral to act out our natural inclination.

The second school of thought is that we must always do what's right, regardless of how we're born.

Both are right in admitting we're born certain things that we don't choose (and not all those things are necessarily easy, good, best or what we'd choose for ourselves).

Both are wrong in arguing our choices to act are simply an expression of (for or against) the way we're born.

If these are the two common schools of thought, we'd do well to look for a third.

Born This Way

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

It doesn't matter.

Really, it doesn't matter.

Ancient philosophers (among others) not only wasted time wondering about the foul, they also wasted time with a classic irreducible logical problem. The answer has always depended on where you start (ab ovo - from the egg), and our answer was already determined the way we begin.

It's not that the question is unanswerable. Biologists have an answer: http://bit.ly/cyqtIJ and so do psychiatrists (why would you ask about the ovum? tell me about your mother).

It is answerable, but what our answer will be is already determined by where we begin - the ideas we assume (about chickens and eggs and the world).

The Truth is that we were born this way.

Get over it.

And ask: now what?