RE: Does anyone own "The Moral Landscape"?
October 4, 2018 at 2:55 pm
(This post was last modified: October 4, 2018 at 3:07 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(October 4, 2018 at 11:58 am)robvalue Wrote: I’ve been proposing this solution for much of the discussion but Vulcan has told me it doesn’t count as realism.
As for Harris, he just announces that morality is about wellbeing, so there’s not much to examine there.
Well, he doesn't just announce it, but..since he doesn't really draw from the literature available he doesn't lay out the case for that comment as plainly (or robustly) as you can find it in ethical or moral theory.
I mentioned his hook, earlier, that he goes about it from the other direction. Positing that for the word "bad" to have any sensible meaning, the greatest possible suffering for the greatest number of beings must be a part of what that means. It's hard to argue with that, and accepting it carries implications for the antithetical assertion. A more thorough examination would be to go through our various moral systems and demonstrate the prevalence of care for wellbeing in them.
Care for wellbeing for wellbeings own sake. Virtue. Care for wellbeing for the sake of outcomes. Consequentialism. Care for wellbeing for sake of duty. Deontology. An objectivists virtue ethic will be based upon some true fact of the virtuous act. An objectivists consequentialist ethic will be based on demonstrable outcomes. Objectivist deontology is concerned with factual responsibilities to the collective.
It's interesting to note that in almost any moral system, the "goods" are predominantly virtue, the "bads" are predominantly consequentialist. The "right".....deontological.
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