RE: Maximizing Moral Virtue
June 24, 2022 at 10:08 am
(This post was last modified: June 24, 2022 at 10:10 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Does it actually matter whether we trust in the reliability of magic book to tell us what god commands? The thing about moral claims, is that their purported issuer and accuracy of transmission is irrelevant to the truth of the moral claim. Lets say I make some moral claim, and it's true. I tell it to john, who tells it to sally, who tells it to phil - so on and so forth. The garbled version that we end up with is not true. Does that garbled claim being untrue make my true claim untrue? Let's say I make some moral claim, and it's false. This time, I skip the middlemen - and accurately relate this moral claim myself. Does this make the false moral claim true?
True and false claims can be accurately and inaccurately transmitted, personally and successively communicated. No belief one way or the other about either issue certifies or suggests that a given moral claim is true, or false.
More fundamentally, no given issuer transmitting a true or false claim certifies that the claim is a moral claim. Moral claims are not "those claims that come from John". Moral claims are those claims which purport to comment on right and wrong behavior. Goodness and badness of character. Claims which could answer the question of why we should (or shouldn't) do whatever might fall from Johns lips. John says "every tuesday is now taco tuesday!" Well, okay John...is there a moral angle to this..or?
True and false claims can be accurately and inaccurately transmitted, personally and successively communicated. No belief one way or the other about either issue certifies or suggests that a given moral claim is true, or false.
More fundamentally, no given issuer transmitting a true or false claim certifies that the claim is a moral claim. Moral claims are not "those claims that come from John". Moral claims are those claims which purport to comment on right and wrong behavior. Goodness and badness of character. Claims which could answer the question of why we should (or shouldn't) do whatever might fall from Johns lips. John says "every tuesday is now taco tuesday!" Well, okay John...is there a moral angle to this..or?
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