RE: Objective morality as a proper basic belief
July 18, 2017 at 5:31 pm
(This post was last modified: July 18, 2017 at 5:50 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(July 18, 2017 at 4:57 pm)mordant Wrote: It is the consensus of virtually all societies that rape is a great harm. That isn't just some individual's offhanded opinion. As a result it isn't likely you'll find many individuals (other than, I suppose, some rapists) who hold the opinion that it's not harmful. But this isn't remotely the same as proving it's a moral fact. It's just a widely held and agreed on moral consensus in the civilized world.My moral fact of a matter is not that people agree or that there is consensus (in fact there is -great- disagreement on what is or is not harmful). My moral fact of the matter is that rape -is- harmful...not that people regard it as such.
Quote:Where is there a thing-in-itself "out there" that we can point to that rape is factually immoral? Like all moral principles it IS in fact "just" an opinion. What's wrong with it being "just" that? It's no less useful to society because it's not a concrete "thing" that renders opinion moot. All a moral principle requires is for society, as a whole, to subscribe to it, agree with it, and therefore hold a common "opinion", and to use laws, taboos, conventions, or threats of withheld social reciprocity to encourage the widespread acceptance of the principle.Harm. You're right, though, in that a subjective morality is a sufficient morality. Theres no -need- for an objective morality, and between two correlative moralities there is no practical difference.
Quote:"Opinion" is not a dirty word. Opinions can be wrong, but they can also be right. Failing to take up an opinion but rather claiming rape is a harm because I say so or because the government says so or because my strongman god says so, is avoiding the hard work of wrestling with moral questions, but questions demand answers (unless you want to just suppress them and avoid them altogether) and answers require opinions. So?OFC not, there are good opinions, bad opinions, just batshit out there opinions. Rape -isn't- harmful just because you say so, and wouldn't be less harmful if you said otherwise. Questions do, though, demand answers, how do you plan on providing a cogent answer without a sound proposition? If someone asks you "why is rape bad" do you respond "because, like, people think it is, and that's their opinion, man".............? Or do you try to help them see some moral fact of the matter, an X that makes the object itself, rape... bad, apart from any subjects appraisal -of- it?
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