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Objective morality as a proper basic belief
RE: Objective morality as a proper basic belief
(June 26, 2017 at 1:20 pm)Astonished Wrote: So, this is just my pedantic brain working here, but it's about definitions.
No, again, it's about whether or not there are or can be any moral facts of a matter.  

Quote:See, you don't look at the mechanism the way I do. I see a, for example, mathematical expression f(x) which I'm positive you must be familiar with. Now let's say that our machine for gauging morality is that function. You can plug whatever in the fuck you want as your x. Well-being, god-dick, WHATEVER. THE. FUCK. The choice of what to put in there is subjective. It is also subject to change. Someone with a fundamentalist morality can become an atheist and have to forcefully change that view and insert something else in place of whatever 'x' they had in there. But again, that is something that needs to be chosen, subjectively.
Yes, you -can- plug whatever you want into it, but that doesn't make whatever you plug in the actual matter of discussion.  Is there or can there be an objective fact of the matter, here?  As to what, for example...we're talking about when we talk about morality.  You feel that you have created a problem by insisting that there is some disparity between god dick pleasing and well-being.  You haven't.  Particularly if the god dick pleasings purpose is to avoid harm or to help.  They may be wrong about what causes harm, about what helps...but can't we objectively show that this is -why- they think that god dick pleasing is good?  That this is what we are both talking about, when we discuss morality?

Quote:Once you settle on your particular x, then yes, I agree, there are certain concrete goals you can set as far as things to strive for and things to avoid. So in this one very, very limited aspect, there is some objectivity; we can determine what tends to contribute more to one side or another; however, there is no means by which to say one action will universally have the same effect or consequences so you can never say that objectively, throwing a turd at someone's head will be a wrong thing, or that one person firing a gun is good while another is bad (like a police officer compared to a former inmate out on parole who's not supposed to have possession of firearms anyway). That there are gradients in this and that arguments need to be made about what factor might outweigh what consequence is, surprise surprise, largely subjective even if they justify/rationalize it with empirical data. Also as we continue to grow and learn, both the goal posts we thought were set in concrete might shift, and the means by which to attain them correspondingly. And again, by how much? Who decides by how much if it's a subjective choice? Too much grey area here for objectivity to really play a factor except in the bare minimum capacity. Two people can use the exact same piece of objective data to support two different positions. Case in point...the wholly babble.
You keep referring to the agent.  "Who decides".   Astonished, we -are- subjective agents..but an objective morality is about the system, not the agent that employs it.  So, just assume for the sake of argument that an objective morality does exist.  That doesn't actually mean that any of us know what it is - that we have access to it.  Maybe we don;t have the relevant information.  Maybe our biasis in some instance or all instances are insurmountable, such that, even understanding those objective moral principles would not promise that we acted in accordance with them or even reliably grasped their accurate conclusions.

This seems, to me, to be exactly the state we're in..regardless of whether or not there is an objective morality.

Quote:But, going back to our foundations, because we chose subjectively to say that one thing is preferable to another, where we set the goal posts is also subjective; that we generally consider well-being to be the one to strive for and suffering to be the one to avoid does not mean this is always the case. I know how utterly insane this is but remember, people manage to make this happen whether we like it or not. Apparently god-dick tastes good or something, I wouldn't know. But they have the subjective freedom to insert any alternate 'x' compared to the secular humanist or general well-being model or whatever you want to call it. Whether it's all about god-dick or just a completely rampantly psychotic reversal of well-being and maximum suffering is preferred (I can't help but think of the Joker from The Dark Knight here) there are irrational models one can place into that function f(x) that shift emphasis away from well-being and into utter madness.
Again, still comments about the agent.  We can't just "choose" an objective moral foundation.  We have to be able to demonstrate that this -is- the foundation.  That this -is- what we are talking about.  

Quote:Now, if I'm misinterpreting the definitions of anything else, I would appreciate that being pointed out with citations but it seems to me like if there is any objectivity to be had in morality, it's about 15% of the overall equation at most.
A sign in the distance objectively says a specific thing.  It 100% says it.  That doesn;t mean I can see it or read it, so...there may be zero objectivity here, at the point of use.  That's a hypothetical we could explore...but...it certainly seems like it;s possible to see more than zero or even 15% of a moral issue.  Are you 0-15% sure that rape is wrong?

(June 26, 2017 at 1:31 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: The quote facility dosent work for some reason, anyhoo.
That shit happens to me constantly.  There are some quote issues I can;t fix without posting and editing, lol.

Quote:If morality was objective everyone would have the same morals.
No, if everyone had the same morals everyone would have the same morals.  

Quote:They don't so it isn't.
It's still a non-seq.

Quote:You may say ah but we could argue about it. But morality would be different than something we could argue about it would be like the a colour, a sense that we all share. It isn't. So subjective.
We don't all perceive color in the same way, I'm not sure how this establishes your point..it seems, rather, to erode it.  Our views on whatever moral fact of the matter there may be would be necessarily clouded by our individual perception, just as it is with color...but that;s something to do with us, not with the morality in question.  

Now, just like I can use a tool to overcome any "I think this one is more red/ no i think that one is more red" argument to definitively answer that question....couldn't there be a tool to help us, in our subjective assessments of objective facts....overcome our natural limitations?  Can you think of any tool that we possess...that's good at assessing the relative accuracy of competing factual claims regarding a matter?

An objective morality states that there is something about a -rape- that makes it bad.  That it's not the opinion of the observer, of the moral assessor..that makes it bad.  That it's not subject to something about -that- guy.  It doesn't state that everyone would see it, or that everyone would see it the same way, though it holds out the possibility that we might, that there could be a way to bring those disparate viewpoints together in the light of fact on a matter.
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Messages In This Thread
RE: Objective morality as a proper basic belief - by The Grand Nudger - June 26, 2017 at 1:40 pm

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