RE: Are some theists afraid of atheists?
August 17, 2017 at 10:42 am
(This post was last modified: August 17, 2017 at 10:58 am by The Grand Nudger.)
The use of empathy as a moral barometer is often combined (either implicitly or explicitly) with a concept known as rational self interest, and with a process known as moral reasoning, Neo.
Your criticisms of that concept or the tools we employ to leverage it do not speak to the validity of the concept as a moral schema or the unsuitability of the tools, but, rather, your dissatisfaction in how it was we arrived both with the concept, and at possessing apparatus capable of making use of it, in addition to our failure to uniformly leverage it.
Yes, we evolved to have an empathetic apparatus (and a rational apparatus..or, at least, an apparatus capable of reason, lol) in order to better our odds at survival and reproduction - add empathy and it's associated apparatus as well as our rational apparatus to the long list of things that evolved for one thing, but are now made better use of at another. To the contention that our empathy does not extend uniformly, you're only saying, in this; "sometimes it doesn't work!". Yeah, no shit. You won't be able to find any moral schema which precludes the possibility of moral failure. If there's a way to get something wrong, you can always trust a human being to find it, amiright?
As to human dignity, from the foundation of rational self interest and in my own assessment, employing that empathetic ability.... the value of your life is -not- contingent upon your instrumental value to me. You -have- no instrumental value to me. It is, however, contingent upon at least one person thinking that at least one life has value (chiefly, me, thinking of my own) - and then rationally extending that valuation to any individual or organism which fits whatever criteria I use for that valuation. If the criteria were as a simple as "it;s a human life!" then, voila, and hey presto... despite your utter lack of utility to me, you also possess a human life - and so, human dignity.
The ability to put ourselves in the place of another is an informative tool, that provides us insight with which we make moral considerations. We ask ourslves, "How would I feel if someone did that to me?" as a sort of hueristic for determining it's moral status....however, you;d be hard pressed to find a person who stops there - who couldn't offer an explanation of why such and such is wrong apart from how it gives them the bad feels.
Your criticisms of that concept or the tools we employ to leverage it do not speak to the validity of the concept as a moral schema or the unsuitability of the tools, but, rather, your dissatisfaction in how it was we arrived both with the concept, and at possessing apparatus capable of making use of it, in addition to our failure to uniformly leverage it.
Yes, we evolved to have an empathetic apparatus (and a rational apparatus..or, at least, an apparatus capable of reason, lol) in order to better our odds at survival and reproduction - add empathy and it's associated apparatus as well as our rational apparatus to the long list of things that evolved for one thing, but are now made better use of at another. To the contention that our empathy does not extend uniformly, you're only saying, in this; "sometimes it doesn't work!". Yeah, no shit. You won't be able to find any moral schema which precludes the possibility of moral failure. If there's a way to get something wrong, you can always trust a human being to find it, amiright?
As to human dignity, from the foundation of rational self interest and in my own assessment, employing that empathetic ability.... the value of your life is -not- contingent upon your instrumental value to me. You -have- no instrumental value to me. It is, however, contingent upon at least one person thinking that at least one life has value (chiefly, me, thinking of my own) - and then rationally extending that valuation to any individual or organism which fits whatever criteria I use for that valuation. If the criteria were as a simple as "it;s a human life!" then, voila, and hey presto... despite your utter lack of utility to me, you also possess a human life - and so, human dignity.
The ability to put ourselves in the place of another is an informative tool, that provides us insight with which we make moral considerations. We ask ourslves, "How would I feel if someone did that to me?" as a sort of hueristic for determining it's moral status....however, you;d be hard pressed to find a person who stops there - who couldn't offer an explanation of why such and such is wrong apart from how it gives them the bad feels.
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