The Assembly Hall could never have been charged with that, Van reflected.
“The lawns that circle the building are considered part of the square…and it overlooks the harbor…can see if you look left how it slopes down to the lower city and the harbor…Any questions?” asked Emily.
“No, not about Government Square,” Van replied. He did wonder why she did not seem to have any admirers—at least, not from what he could see. He knew that the first and second secretaries were married, but he hadn’t seen their significant others.
But Emily had a subdued directness that attracted Van, although he wasn’t quite sure why. That, he had to admit, even as he pushed away the thoughts of anything serious. Not when he had so much yet to learn and so many unresolved questions.
Chapter 11
What is “ethical” or moral? A general definition is that actions that conform to a “right set of principles” are ethical. Such a definition begs the question. Whose principles? On what are those principles based? Do those principles arise from reasoned development by rational scholars? Or from “divine” inspiration? Does it matter, so long as they inspire moral and ethical behavior?
For some, it does matter, as it did for the ancient author who claimed that without a deity, every action is permitted. In practice, with or without a deity, every action is permitted unless human social structures preclude it. Yet, on what principles are those social structures based? Ethics and morality?
Such questioning can quickly run in circles, especially since most individuals wish to think well of themselves, and it is difficult to think well of oneself if one defines one’s own activities as immoral or unethical. For example, genocide can be rationalized as an ethical means to racial purity, or as a means for societal survival, and both purity and survival can easily be rationalized, and have been throughout history, as ethical.
Are values and behaviors that perpetuate a given society ethical per se? Are values handed down by prophets and religious figures as the word of a deity necessarily more ethical than those developed by ethicists and scholars?
Theocracies and other societies using religious motives, or pretexts, have undertaken genocide, torture, and war. Ideologues without the backing of formal religious doctrine or established theocratic organizations have done the same.
The obvious conclusion is that “moral” values must be ethical in and of themselves, and not through religious or secular authority or rationalized logic. This leads to the critical questions. How can one define what is ethical without resorting to authority, religious doctrine, or societal expediency? And whom will any society trust to make such a judgment, particularly one not based on authority, doctrine, or expediency?
Values, Ethics, and Society
Exton Land
New Oisin, Tara
1117 S.E.
Chapter 12
By twoday of his second week in Valborg, Van had learned as much as he could, without more context, from the records left by Commander Cruachan and from Doctors Hannigan and Gregory. The RSF Security report on Cruachan’s death was both detailed and dry, and concluded that the commander had drowned after being struck from behind by the boom of his catamaran and that there had been no breach of embassy security. Emily Clifton had confirmed that media patterns of other embassies and local media had not varied after the commander’s death.
Outside of a few inquiries from Hannigan and the ambassador and one briefing paper that the ambassador had requested on Keltyr military forces, Van had been left largely to his own devices. He had found the small exercise facility, and resumed his fitness program, something he hated almost as much as being reminded of the Regneri.
Dr. Gregory’s reaction to the Regneri tragedy still bothered Van, almost as much as his own nightmares. Cordelia Gregory was an intelligent woman, and yet her entire focus had been on her sister. There had been little real understanding or compassion for the hundreds of others killed by the renegades—or for the additional deaths that would have followed if the Vetachi had escaped. Her reaction had also convinced Van that there would be little he could ever say in that regard, and that further discussions on the subject would only be fruitless.
On the strictly professional front, Van hadn’t wanted to take on the Keltyr or the Revenant military attachés immediately, and he especially hadn’t wanted to meet the Argenti attaché until he knew more about the local Scandyan situation. He was also surprised to find that the Eco-Tech Coalition did not have a full embassy, but only a liaison and consulate office.
As he’d worked through the files, Van had studied Cruachan’s reports in greater detail. He could sense he was missing something, but he wasn’t sure what. So he kept searching and discovered that the commander had often met with a Commodore Petrov of the Scandyan System Defense Force. There were no notes on the substance of the meetings. Van had decided to meet with Petrov.
Getting an appointment had been easy enough, and nine hundred on fourday found him in an embassy groundcar, headed northward toward the headquarters complex of the Scandyan SDF. Clouds loomed over the hills to the west, hinting at a late afternoon rain, and the air smelled faintly of dust and a scent somewhere between a sweet weedgrass and swamp roses.
Van’s driver was a slender Scandyan named Stefan.
“Do you recall how often Commander Cruachan came out here?” Van asked.
“He used to come out here almost every eightday.”
“I’ve gotten the impression that he was a very straightforward man.”
Stefan cocked his head, as if thinking. “Honest…that he was. And honorable. He talked, once, about how much simpler life was as a ship commander.”
“I’ve already discovered that. Did he say why?”
“I can’t say that he did, ser. He didn’t talk much, except about sailing and the weather, and sometimes about not understanding women.”
Had Cruachan also had a run-in with Cordelia Gregory? “He liked sailing, didn’t
