(March 30, 2019 at 4:49 am)pocaracas Wrote: FFS, stop making stupid analogies!
A fact is a true statement about reality.... or as true as human consensus makes it.
I think it was WLC that noted that any argument made against objective morality, can be equally made against objective truth. Instead of me having to show you this, you seem to making this argument yourself. You’re not only denying mind independent/objective moral truths, but mind independent/truths all together.
My argument is that moral truths, are like objective truths about reality, and not like subjective opinions or tastes, and rather than arguing otherwise, you’ve resorted to denying the existence of objective truths all together. That they they cease to exist absent of conscience minds to confirm them. (I’m not sure why you don’t take it a step further and suggest that reality doesn’t exist absent of minds to confirm it’s existence). At this point you might as well argue for solipsism.
Rather than arguing against my point, you’ve just moved the argument some place else instead. It’s no longer about whether moral truth, is better categorized as objective or subjective, but whether there’s even such a thing as objective truth.
And you’ve done this repeatedly. Rather than dealing with the argument I made, you’ve tried to move it to some argument that barely resembles the one I’m making regarding morality.
Quote:The question assumes impartial observers... ideally non-human conscious observers. Aliens? Why would aliens have morals equivalent to humanity?
There you go again, changing my argument. I didn’t say anything about non-human, or alien observers, just an objective observers. I also didn’t say anything about this observers personal beliefs or own moral views. In fact all this observers needed to understand is the human genre of objective truths, vs that of subjective opinions and tastes, sort of like the observer understanding the human genres of writings, history, non-fiction, poetry, fiction, etc…, and as result can piece back together a layout of a bookstore and which books fall into which section, as result of knowing the nature of various genres.
If they looked at the way we talk about morality, moral statements, moral arguments, moral beliefs, etc… they would recognize that such perceptions resemble objective truths, and not subjective opinions. The statements like torturing innocent babies just for fun is wrong, more resemble statements like 1+1 =2, and not statements like The Notebook was a terrible movie.
Quote:Yes, but they only become relevant when they inform some action, some behavior.
If a positive disposition towards harming other humans is not passed on to a corresponding behavior, then such a trait tends to be propagated down the genetic line.
I don't know how wrong such a husband and thief would perceive what they're doing as they're doing it... typically, a greater good is somehow perceived.
Again, shifting my argument. I’m arguing about moral beliefs and perceptions, and here you’re going on about moral behaviors.
Secondly, there’s plenty of things people know are wrong, yet do them. I know I shouldn’t eat that cookie, but I give into temptation. I know it’s wrong to cheat on my wife, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to do it. I know it’s wrong to keep the wallet you dropped, but the money is so tempting to keep.
“For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.”
Quote:Certainly killing someone is more serious than infidelity which is more serious than cheating at some game... The emotional reaction to those should also fall within an equivalent scale.
"It's wrong to cheat and you should be ashamed" might be something that a parent may tell the child.
Again, changing my argument. I indicated the moral statements, such as the ones I tell my children, are not akin to expressing my disgust, or implying that my children should act in ways that don’t disgust me.
Even the statement “its wrong to cheat and you should be ashamed”, doesn’t mean that it’s only wrong if you feel ashamed. It’s wrong even if you don’t feel ashamed about it.
Quote:"It's wrong and disgusting to torture a baby" is another,
Exactly, it’s wrong and disgusting. The meaning of wrong is not synomous with disgusting. Or else you statement would be “It’s disgusting and disgusting to torture a baby”
Quote:Again, you feel it as an objective observation very likely because it's an inherited trait stemming from inwardly acknowledging that such practices lead to a less healthy, less happy, more suffering population.
The same happens for things like incest.
I’m not feeling an objective observation, I’m perceiving and recognizing an objective observation. Might as well say I feel the chair in my room is real, because it’s an inherited trait.
But perhaps you mean something like this: That our strong feelings of disgust leads us to falsely believe that morality exist objectively. We feel the wrongness of something so strongly we can’t believe it’s just an internal biological sensation, we’re compelled to believe something like a moral law out there in the fabric of reality, like a mirage?
Quote:It's immoral because of the awareness that carrying out such practices leads to a worse society.
No it isn’t. In fact we seem aware of the wrongness of things, like torturing innocent babies just for fun, prior to assessing whether it has any real impact on our particular society or not.
Perhaps there’s some ruler in some country which we’re dependent on economically, who rapes and murders little children. We may find that it’s better for our society, and it’s material needs, not to intervene, to allow the practice to continue. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t see the act as wrong.
Torturing innocent babies just for fun is wrong, even if it has no real impact on the wellbeing of our particular society.
Quote:Was it right to do such marginalization? From the overwhelming mideval European christian point of view, it was. From our more globalist point of view, it wasn’t.
No, the overwhelming European christian view wasn’t that it’s okay to marginalize people, to scapegoat, or blame innocent people for things they didn’t do. They just deluded themselves into denying that this is what they were doing. It’s not that we’re operating on the same perception of reality and disagreeing, but one is operating on a false perception of reality to justify their actions.