RE: Do you wish there's a god?
March 28, 2019 at 9:52 pm
(This post was last modified: March 28, 2019 at 10:15 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
That's not an issue for or of moral realism in particular. If you were a moral relativist, when looking at what the nazis did, for the reasons they gave, you would determine that what they did was good. That their moral statements were true.
Shot in the dark, I'm guessing that you don't think it was good, or that their moral statements were true. You think they were wrong. Their moral statements and "sacred moral duty" a false one.
What you're likely describing is a less controversial but very different position. Descriptive moral relativism. You notice that different cultures have different ideas of what is right and what is wrong.
Moral realism and moral relativism in contrast as metaethical positions ie "I'm a moral realist"/"I'm a moral relativist" takes it further than a surface level observation of the differences between cultures. Asking he question (or making an assertion) as to why we think this or that thing is right or wrong, and what we mean when we say it. Relativism takes the stance no moral statement has an absolute truth value. That there is nothing about the act of genocide, for example (or any other thing) that's wrong. If a culture thinks it's right, then it's right.
Interestingly, you and I may recoil, what do you mean genocide is right, and good? It hurts people! That's exactly what the nazis thought jews and other undesirables did, or their inaction would do.
As far as our possible bent toward amorality...that's more pessimistic simplification than full exploration of human nature. Still, it's easy to see that we have an incredible capacity and appetite for what we might call bad, or evil. That's why sin...sin in a sense more serious than any christian is willing to discuss it or in truth can discuss it and remain loyal to the faith is just as much at home in a secular realists appraisal.
Shot in the dark, I'm guessing that you don't think it was good, or that their moral statements were true. You think they were wrong. Their moral statements and "sacred moral duty" a false one.
What you're likely describing is a less controversial but very different position. Descriptive moral relativism. You notice that different cultures have different ideas of what is right and what is wrong.
Moral realism and moral relativism in contrast as metaethical positions ie "I'm a moral realist"/"I'm a moral relativist" takes it further than a surface level observation of the differences between cultures. Asking he question (or making an assertion) as to why we think this or that thing is right or wrong, and what we mean when we say it. Relativism takes the stance no moral statement has an absolute truth value. That there is nothing about the act of genocide, for example (or any other thing) that's wrong. If a culture thinks it's right, then it's right.
Interestingly, you and I may recoil, what do you mean genocide is right, and good? It hurts people! That's exactly what the nazis thought jews and other undesirables did, or their inaction would do.
As far as our possible bent toward amorality...that's more pessimistic simplification than full exploration of human nature. Still, it's easy to see that we have an incredible capacity and appetite for what we might call bad, or evil. That's why sin...sin in a sense more serious than any christian is willing to discuss it or in truth can discuss it and remain loyal to the faith is just as much at home in a secular realists appraisal.
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