[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by HerenIstarion

Um, moral consensus... let us count - Sauron and his allies outnumbered people of the West at least ten to one. So, the moral consensus was against Aragorn & Co. and Gandalf must have been morally pervert...

Originally Posted by davem

He is surely stating that in his view morality is not subjective

I am most definately not saying that morality is subjective or that it is dependent upon weight of numbers (although there are those who would make such arguments). There are many examples, past and present, that convince me that this cannot be the case. Perhaps the word "consensus" is wrong, so let's go for "objective moral standards".

Originally Posted by davem

... the 'moral consensus' only has value to the extent to which it corresponds to the Good.

Again, a misunderstanding arising from my use of "consensus". My point is that "objective moral standards" do correspond to the concept of "good", whether you believe their source to be some higher Authority or you believe that they developed that way because what's "good" is good for the continuation of society and therefore the human race as a whole. In telling a tale of good and evil, Tolkien was reflecting these objective moral standards. I don't think we disagree on this, although we might disagree on the origins of morality.

Originally Posted by HerenIstarion

... the moral Fact is what draws many of us in - it is the world where Good is, where Truth is, and the task is only to discern them, not to find them in the first place, as is the case in ours. That is, for most of us. For, unfortunately or fortunately, I maintain that every man, in his heart of hearts, knows what is Good, with or without upbringing. We just have wagonload of good excuses not to see it.

Well, to an extent (and disregarding those bothersome capitals ), I agree with you. But I don't think it's that simple. As I have said, there are, in real life, massive grey areas on the borders of "morality". Whereas, its Boromirs and Gollum/Smeagols notwithstanding, LotR is essentially a very "black and white" tale. Subject to limited exceptions, it is easy to tell who is good and who is evil, and easy to see why they are so. It's not quite so easy in real life.

Is the terrorist who wins independence for his country and becomes a great statesman good or evil? There are, in our recent history, examples of such people who are hailed as great heroes. Were the sailors, adrift at sea in a lifeboat, who drew straws and murdered and ate their comrade so that not all of them would die, good or evil? Moral conundrums abound in real life, but are rare, it seems to me, in LotR. What does it, or any of Tolkien's other works, have to tell us in this regard?

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I for one, should hate to think that there is a right and a wrong way to understand a text

Well, courtesy of those repugnant white supremacists, I have to acknowledge that there are "wrong" ways to read LotR. But I agree that there is no one "right" way. (I seem to recall having a conversation with Mister Underhill on this many pages ago ...).

Originally Posted by HerenIstarion

we are discussing in circles, it seems

Undoubtedly, but not ever-decreasing ones, it would appear.

Edit after cross-posting with Aiwendil:

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I must say that I'm somewhat confused by the turn the thread has taken. One moment the discussion concerns "canonicity", the question of the author's importance, and the nature of imaginary worlds. Then suddenly I find myself reading a tirade against moral relativism and even a passing discussion of metaphysics.

As I understand it, this conversation arose around the proposition that Tolkien's works in general, and LotR in particular, reflect moral standards in our world and that we can learn from it in this regard. I don't necessarily disagree with that as a general proposition, although I see the sources of morality in Middle-earth and our world as different (as, like you, I accept that concepts of good and morality in Middle-earth derive from Eru).