Existentialism fails and that failing in the latter evokes guilt in us — TheMadFool
Guilt - an emotion - is often created when there are two realities that are at such extremes in relation to one another that a person experiencing both realities makes sense of it by bridging the gap between the two extremes with unrealistic information, since they're incapable of doing it with realistic information. It's the way for a person to cope with an unknown, i.e. the understanding that links the two extremes. Guilt is not a bad thing, provided one doesn't get stuck in the unknown and never progress to the known, which is where I'm arguing the existentialists left us.
Earlier when I wrote about guilt, I started off -
And in our modern, anonymous society when we let someone down we feel the same amount of guilt for a stranger that we would feel for a well known acquaintance, which I believe is totally unsustainable. — Rand
So I was implying that when our integrity demands we treat a stranger with the same reverence that we treat someone whom we've had life experiences with, then we create two extremes that can't be linked with realistic reasoning. Instead we create, for example, a god complex to help us to cope with the two extremes, which is not based in reality. If we chose it, only a god complex will give us enough courage to approach our beloved, favourite family member and, for example, a serial killer stranger with the same moral integrity.
Are you suggesting that that everyone's life-goal should be the same — TheMadFool
I'm arguing that moral principles ARE the same regardless of the self's life goals. And morality dictates how we treat people but good moral principles could not dictate that we treat everyone the same. Good moral principles would dictate that we need a balanced approach between rational AND empirical reasoning, allowing for continuous progression between the known and unknown. We have to take experience into account with our moral reasoning to reduce feelings of guilt, for example, by acknowledging that we can't approach the serial killer stranger with the same moral integrity as a beloved, favourite family member that we spend most of our time with.