RE: Atheism and morality
July 3, 2013 at 7:58 pm
(This post was last modified: July 3, 2013 at 8:00 pm by Inigo.)
(July 3, 2013 at 7:53 pm)Psykhronic Wrote:(July 3, 2013 at 7:49 pm)Inigo Wrote: If it was an internal instruction (an instruction you issue to yourself) you would lack inescapable reason to comply with it.
Because... you said so?
Er, no. I've argued why umpteen times. Only the instructions of an agent who has control over your interests in an afterlife would be ones we'd always have reason to comply with whatever she wished us to do. Moral instructions are instructions we have reason to comply with whatever it instructs us to do. So far as I can see, then, that's the only way something with all the characteristics of a moral instruction can exist: it requires a god.
(July 3, 2013 at 7:54 pm)paulpablo Wrote:(July 3, 2013 at 7:49 pm)Inigo Wrote: I've already mentioned this. Of course altruism is not always right. Sometimes it is right, sometimes it is wrong, sometimes it is supererogatory, sometimes it is subererogatory, sometimes it is permissible.
THe point, though, is that this is beside the point. When altruism is or is not a virtue is a matter in normative ethics. What we are talking about here is what morality 'is', not what it tells us to do and be.
If it was an internal instruction (an instruction you issue to yourself) you would lack inescapable reason to comply with it.
What inescapable reasons are there for abiding by the external instructions which you say morality consists of?
Instrumental reasons.
(July 3, 2013 at 7:53 pm)BrotherNeto Wrote: @Inigo
It exists as a concept and in our own minds, which I have no problem with. Why do you need morality to be a an immaterial yet truly existing 'thing' or, even a physical agent? It's not a problem for most people that some things are abstract. Obviously, by your definition of whether something exists or not, I don't believe it exists. So what. My definition of what exists resides in the abstract world as well. It's not that difficult.
And maybe it is external. It does not mean this agent has to be intelligent, just that it gives the required output for you to have a sense of.
If you accept that morality does not really exist if atheism is true, then you agree with me. YOu accept that no acts are really right or wrong if atheism is true.
