RE: Atheism and Ethics
July 25, 2024 at 4:58 pm
(This post was last modified: July 25, 2024 at 5:31 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(July 25, 2024 at 2:36 pm)Lucian Wrote: So I guess there can be moral facts if we define morality as being about wrongness and wrongness as being about harm. But it seems tautological and just an arbitrary definition. Why should I care about harm (I do, but by what standard should I).Perhaps that is not a mind independent (non-institutional) categorical imperative, and if so fine I get on board with it and fail as much as the next man and succeed hopefully at least as well. But to be moral realist to me is to say that this isn’t just a matter of definition, it is a matter of a property (of the universe?) that exists, that our actions can live up to or fall short from. We don’t think that there are objective standards about tickling (apart from the way my brother bullied me with it as a child and might explain a lot), so why think there are standards about harm
A person might not give a shit regardless of whether or not there are shoulds. Similarly, we could assert that rape was not harmful, or even declare it a societal imperative - but that won't change anything about rape that lead me to call it harmful or deem it immoral. If there are no objective standards for tickling™, what is the difference between tickling and rape? As for mind independence, I'd suggest that the way you've employed the term literally everything in the universe is mind dependent. It means more than just existing as or accurate as an opinion in a mind in metaethical theory. It means existing nowhere else and being accurate of nothing else but.
I think you're coming at this backwards. Moral realism is not the answer to any or every question - moral realism doesn't even propose a -single- answer to -any- question. If you ask me how much good is enough good, for example..moral realism can't answer that for you. Metaethics, value, motivation, and deontology are not interchangeable.
-as an answer to your q, of why we talk so much about immorality...well..probably because of the harm lol. It's nice to do good things, sure. If you didn't do any good things you'll have harmed no one. Now do one bad thing....
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