RE: Evolution cannot account for morality
June 1, 2022 at 9:25 pm
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2022 at 9:30 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
So, a lot.
I’ll preface this entire but with “rightly or wrongly”.
Plants are not taken to be self aware. Rather, they’re pointed to as yet another way that life can effect at least some of the behaviors we think to be specifically consequential and most easily observed in self aware things.
I used the example of auxin before…but I could have just as easily used our own hearts beat. It’s not due to awareness, instinct, or intent that a photophobic chemical collects on the shaded side of a plant causing it to grow opposite…effectively…-into- the sun. The same is true of our heart beating. It’s undirected, the impetus unfelt. It works, ofc, just like auxin works. To say it’s undirected is not to say that nothing regulates it- in both cases there are underlying causes and even checks. It’s just not a part of any intentionality we can observe.
Nevertheless, having a beating heart or being oriented by auxin is not what anyone is talking about when they discuss moral agency. Most animals are minimally self aware, however, and it’s because of this that we can observe analog behaviors in…say……herding animals- that come to us as a rudimentary version of some human x. It follows from this that most animals could even be minimally cruel or decent.
I’ll preface this entire but with “rightly or wrongly”.
Plants are not taken to be self aware. Rather, they’re pointed to as yet another way that life can effect at least some of the behaviors we think to be specifically consequential and most easily observed in self aware things.
I used the example of auxin before…but I could have just as easily used our own hearts beat. It’s not due to awareness, instinct, or intent that a photophobic chemical collects on the shaded side of a plant causing it to grow opposite…effectively…-into- the sun. The same is true of our heart beating. It’s undirected, the impetus unfelt. It works, ofc, just like auxin works. To say it’s undirected is not to say that nothing regulates it- in both cases there are underlying causes and even checks. It’s just not a part of any intentionality we can observe.
Nevertheless, having a beating heart or being oriented by auxin is not what anyone is talking about when they discuss moral agency. Most animals are minimally self aware, however, and it’s because of this that we can observe analog behaviors in…say……herding animals- that come to us as a rudimentary version of some human x. It follows from this that most animals could even be minimally cruel or decent.
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