RE: Conscience and the Moral Argument as Evidence for the Goodness of God.
June 14, 2023 at 8:22 am
(June 14, 2023 at 7:55 am)Peebothuhlu Wrote: More along the lines of "IF morals are an emergent property, then all coherent groups/societies/extended bond-sharing species should show such patterns of behaviours."
So, when we meet aliens, regardless of their DNA/Number of manipulators/etc we can compare and contrast their 'Morals' with/alongside our own to see how things square away/match up.
Yeah, I think that because human beings are very largely the same all across the species (compared to, say, jellyfish) then we are very likely to have a consistent set of emergent properties. So for example if it's true that mind is an emergent property of the brain, it's no surprise that there's a great deal of consistency among human minds. There's variation, of course, but it falls within pretty clear parameters.
So if morality is also an emergent property from human beings, then all human societies would have fairly similar moral systems -- though again allowing for local variations.
I also think that this allows for serious debate concerning universal moral principles among humans. Even if one culture DID argue that cutting the arms off of healthy babies for fun was OK, I believe we could build a good case, based on consistencies of emergent morality and obvious facts about human flourishing, that their morality was not only different but outright WRONG.
Of course emergent properties emerge FROM something. If space aliens were quite different from us, physically, mentally, etc., etc., the properties that emerge from them might be quite different. But that's pretty wild speculation. Like intelligent clouds of gas who live in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet would be so different physically and probably intellectually, that it wouldn't be surprising if what they consider to be "proper behavior" is also different.