RE: Atheism and Ethics
June 10, 2024 at 12:08 pm
(This post was last modified: June 10, 2024 at 12:25 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
If I keep feeding my kids I'm practically ensuring that they will one day get old and sick and die in pain. Clearly, the best thing to do is starve the little shits beforehand.
In seriousness, that's what people are referring to with the term exclusively sub optimal decision field. Where there is no clean choice, and all roads lead to some specific misery - and yet we will still..or even must still..make some choice between said options. I don't personally think it's a good example in reality...we're not living so well there isn't enough stuff to go around. That's just something people who have things say to keep us from taking them. More fundamentally, I don't think that I should avoid doing some good thing for the fear that something may someday go wrong somehow and turn that into an engine for bad stuff. That worry is evergreen. It's never not the case that future externalities can stymy the best intentions of lowly human worms in the present. Guy who invented dynamite thought it would be the end of war. Modern chemical weapons came out of a project to end hunger.
Moral objectivity doesn't have a problem with claims that turn out to be wrong. Claims like "this is gonna put an end to alot of suffering". In the context of moral objectivity, the fact that they turned out wrong doesn't even make them less objective - which is a thing to remember that I think would resolve alot of miscommunications. If the particular issue is based in facts of a matter, and the proposed resolution is likewise informed by facts of a matter, the failure of the course of action does not indicate a failure of the metaethical position. Generously, it means we didn't have command of every relevant fact - but we don't know what we don't know...so we can never know if we've reached content fact terminus. Or, supposing we did, it could indicate that that we were willing to do a bad thing for a good outcome and roll the dice, which shouldn't be mindblowing when we consider the full breadth of human motivations.
In seriousness, that's what people are referring to with the term exclusively sub optimal decision field. Where there is no clean choice, and all roads lead to some specific misery - and yet we will still..or even must still..make some choice between said options. I don't personally think it's a good example in reality...we're not living so well there isn't enough stuff to go around. That's just something people who have things say to keep us from taking them. More fundamentally, I don't think that I should avoid doing some good thing for the fear that something may someday go wrong somehow and turn that into an engine for bad stuff. That worry is evergreen. It's never not the case that future externalities can stymy the best intentions of lowly human worms in the present. Guy who invented dynamite thought it would be the end of war. Modern chemical weapons came out of a project to end hunger.
Moral objectivity doesn't have a problem with claims that turn out to be wrong. Claims like "this is gonna put an end to alot of suffering". In the context of moral objectivity, the fact that they turned out wrong doesn't even make them less objective - which is a thing to remember that I think would resolve alot of miscommunications. If the particular issue is based in facts of a matter, and the proposed resolution is likewise informed by facts of a matter, the failure of the course of action does not indicate a failure of the metaethical position. Generously, it means we didn't have command of every relevant fact - but we don't know what we don't know...so we can never know if we've reached content fact terminus. Or, supposing we did, it could indicate that that we were willing to do a bad thing for a good outcome and roll the dice, which shouldn't be mindblowing when we consider the full breadth of human motivations.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
