(September 12, 2019 at 10:16 am)Vince Wrote: II do agree that we have immediate initial thoughts about a moral action that is often correct. But without comparing that action to a moral standard you have no idea if it is right.
Yet our minds recognize right and wrong, without requiring us to take any time comparing it to some standard we latter acquired. When you think of your standards, you're nor really reevaluating whether something is good or bad, as much as you're trying to ad hoc justify it as part of that standard. You know the answer before you've put it through the equation.
Thinking/reasoning relates more to question of how we should deal with such actions, what resources should we allocate if any, what political policies should we favor, etc..... Rather then whether something is good or bad.
Quote:For all people some of the time I agree. That does not mean that some cannot have justifications for their beliefs.
The justifications people give for their moral beliefs, almost never have anything to with why they believe/perceive things are moral. They believe the brains followed the formulas of their particular moral philosophies to derive that conclusion, but it's more like the non-rational perception of an objective value. More the result of seeing yellowness, than a mathematical equation being run through rationally.
If you put students through courses on moral philosophies, and avoid placing comparable children in such courses, none would be any better than the other in recognizing right from wrong. If it did, we should probably put Sam Harris and The Moral Landscape on the curriculum for prison reform. If only those criminals had a proper moral philosophy, could they have avoided their crimes.
Quote:It seems to me that you are advocating that whatever we think is moral in a situation we should do that. That lends to lead to bad moral descisions if I am understanding correctly.
Yes, you should do whatever you see as moral, as long you're being honest, and not deluding yourself, is sage advice.
The problem arises when people are not being honest with themselves, and are deluding themselves.
Quote: For example, many parents have an intuition that spanking their child is a moral punishment, but many after really thinking about it come to the conclusion that spanking is morally wrong. Without reason morality is just how you feel what is right at any moment, not what is actually right.
The problem with spanking, is that its often driven by frustration and anger, than by an honest desire to correct ones children, when they've done something wrong. Parents who punish their children in other ways, but out of frustration, are also culprits.
Children, and their inability to defend themselves, become easy scapegoats.
Properly adjusted children, seem more to be testament of their parents character, than thing else. The difference between parents committed to the development of their children as proper human beings, rather using them as a mean to their own ends, like objects of their frustrations and disappointments.
