(April 3, 2012 at 1:09 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(April 2, 2012 at 5:57 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: As opposed to asserting that morality is just a set of arbitrary conventions for behavior by an imaginary god that always seems to want whatever the believer wants? Asserting that morality is a function of how we treat our fellow sentient beings, as determined by our innate sense of empathy, fair play and the social contract is superior.Appealing to empathy, fair play and social contract is still not inherently superior to nihilism. In both systems values are derived from utility.
I would say the only thing that makes moral behavior noteworthy is that it was not required. We could have done otherwise but we treated others fairly nonetheless. By fairly I mean of course the way in which we like to be treated. Now some may argue that that is just selfishness from a broader perspective and I have no problem with that. A Kantian thinks doing the moral thing is only morally superior because we do it for that very reason. Most of us could give a rat's ass less about the self perception of goodness. We're wired for productive go existence and that's enough.
