Morals

[Jesster]

People generally have morals. We evolved that way. Asking "why" is rather misguided. A better question is "how did it come about", which is answered pretty simply by the fact that we prospered as a cooperative species.

Religion of course replaces this explanation with "magic", instead of accepting straightforward scientific models.

Well I am not really concerned with religious explanations here.

But my thoughts are tending in the same direction.  There is no reason external to ourselves as we have come to exist that morals would exist: a universe void of any life or any social constructs for that matter would be entirely without morals, and the "ought" can only come into play if there is already value placed on life and the flourishing thereof on physical, psychological, and social dimensions.  If for whatever reason that isn't valued, then it simply isn't.

But is this reasoning the same as moral nihilism?

No. Nihilism is the belief that nothing matters. While morals would not exist if we weren't here to put value into them, they do matter once we are here to define them. There's just no grand morality behind it all.

Think of it like an economic system. If society didn't exist, would economics exist? No. They only come into play once there is a society to apply them to. It's not a force that actually exists in the universe. It's a concept that we create. That doesn't mean that it doesn't matter once we have a reason to use it.