RE: Euthyphro dilemma asked for evolution.
June 13, 2012 at 4:10 pm
(This post was last modified: June 13, 2012 at 4:16 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Biologists also often nod to the notion that this behavior could just as easily be a heuristic (and in some cases have decided that it absolutely is). A heuristic is not a guide of any sort, it may appear to be so if you are aware of the process and external to it, but that is not how a heuristic works for the creature that may be subject to it. In other words Genk, are we guided by our notions of morality, or could it be possible that what we communicate and codify as our notions of morality are in fact a heuristic that has kept us alive. If we are inclined towards particular behaviors, even complicated sets of them, by some part of our genetic makeup -with no actual awareness on the part of that genetic makeup of what problem is being solved or why those actions are taking place, and much less in the way of actual direction from our conscious thoughts as we once previously believed, then morality as we know it, not as you have defined it, is not a guide, even if it should be. I actually agree with you here, I think that morality should be a guide (I couldn't for the life of me explain why it "should" be anything, btw), but I'm not completely certain that it is, currently. Which is why I mentioned that a more specific wording of that particular statement might be warranted. It is also the entirety of my problem with your accepting this definition of morality as some sort of fact, or an issue of unmarried bachelors.
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