The Diagram is not Simply One Group

[thejopen27 he/him]

On 12/12/2016 at 10:01 PM, Jame Starmade said:

Everyone is the hero in their own story.

but some of them are wrong. And some are monsters. Not everyone is correct, some people are wrong. Taravangian considers himself the hero the world needs. He is wrong, he is destroying and dividing the world when it needs to be at it's strongest.

[zmunkz]

On 12/12/2016 at 9:42 PM, Spoolofwhool said:

By definition, morality is entirely subjective. There is no such as a objective, universal set of morals.

You are defining "moral relativism," which is not the exclusive school of thought in moral philosophy. Moral absolutism is another philosophy which argues exactly that morals are universal and absolute. The arguments on each side are quite fascinating, but in any case, it is not true as a matter of definition that morality infers relativism over absolutism.

[emailanimal he/him]

1 hour ago, thejopen27 said:

but some of them are wrong. And some are monsters. Not everyone is correct, some people are wrong. Taravangian considers himself the hero the world needs. He is wrong, he is destroying and dividing the world when it needs to be at it's strongest.

Taravagnian is a fascinating character.  Now, I generally disagree strongly with "intelligence is inversely proportional to empathy" statement: to me these are two independent axes and people can fall anywhere in the 2D space they create.  I do however accept Taravagnian's situation as a curse - Nightwatcher  draws his intelligence for each day from a normal distribution, and fixes empathy as 1-Intelligence. This is devious, and one of the reasons why I am a strong supporter of a theory that Cultivation is dangerous when she wants to be.

Having said that, he reminds me a LOT

Spoiler

of Lord Ruler. Not because of regal status, but because of the situation Brandon puts each into, and their reactions.. Both perform horrible acts.  But at the end, it is what Lord Ruler does that plays a mighty role in defeating Ruin, while "the good guys" are Ruin's puppets for most of the series. So you have a terrible and corrupted agent of Preservation who is Leras's last line of defense until Kelsier kicks the bucket, and a lot of VERY sympathetic characters who for the most part make things worse. Like, release the Eldritch Demons worse. You can hate LR all you want, but the revelations about his ways to protect Scadrial from Ruin earn him mucho Respect. Even if a lot of it was driven by self-preservation.

 

Back to Mr. T. I suspect that he might turn out to be a similar type of actor. I commented elsewhere - if I were an Inkspren, I'd want to bond him NOW! The Diagram is fascinating. Whether personal insight or shardic help - it is still fascinating to me. Whatever must happen, I will not be surprised if it contributes to the plot development in ways similar to those I described in the spoiler. It is sort of the inverse of a popular proverb. Here it is "hate the messenger, not the message".

[Spoolofwhool]

14 hours ago, zmunkz said:

You are defining "moral relativism," which is not the exclusive school of thought in moral philosophy. Moral absolutism is another philosophy which argues exactly that morals are universal and absolute. The arguments on each side are quite fascinating, but in any case, it is not true as a matter of definition that morality infers relativism over absolutism.

True, but this is my interpretation of how morality works. 

EDIT: Also, to me, the most logical way morality can be interpreted.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[Jame Starmade]

14 hours ago, thejopen27 said:

but some of them are wrong. And some are monsters. Not everyone is correct, some people are wrong. Taravangian considers himself the hero the world needs. He is wrong, he is destroying and dividing the world when it needs to be at it's strongest.

Who knows maybe it is the best course of action. We don't yet know the full picture of what all is going on.  Following the diagram may just be what will save the day in the end.