Slavery in Ancient Greece was ubiquitous. Let's assume every citizen of Athens, for example, accepted the legitimacy of slavery. Would that mean there were no morally good Athenians?
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OK, so my position is that X is morally right or wrong irrespective of whether you know or not, but you can't be held morally culpable for X if you've never encountered any reason for why it's wrong.
That position has merit, but it's too hard & fast, I think. For example, what about motivated ignorance - never seeking out a reason? Or simply understanding that suffering, for example, is wrong - i.e., in a direct empathetic/experiential sense?
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If you're aware that something *could* be causing suffering to others then it would be immoral to avoid reading the reasons why others strongly believe that it is wrong.
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Yes, I think so. So slavery might have been wrong not because people knew it was wrong, but because they chose not to think about it too closely in the face of what was sometimes terrible suffering (Ancient Greek mining, for example).
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