Objective vs Subjective Morals

[bennyboy]

Also, look at drugs.

Jogging creates pain. Is it morally wrong? How about making my kids get off their mobile devices and rejoin the real world? That causes them pain, but it would be immoral NOT to limit their game time, I think.

It doesn't work when you only look at the immediate consequences.

You do it because you think your children will ultimately be happier for it, right? That's ethical hedonism.

The long-term consequences, in term of hedonistic state, are not easily predicted by parents. That's why there are so many different parenting styles and techniques. Nor is the individual hedonic state of my children necessarily the most important thing in raising them: their ability to produce in society, to achieve greatness (or at least technical competence) and to meet their responsibilities is at least as important to me as their emotional state.

Nor is hedonic state a good end-of-the-line for a moral system. It's clear that we are capable of responding with pleasure to actions or events which are not good. For example, drugs feel fantastic, but since they bypass the behavioral and state requirements for normal pleasure. Don't believe me? Imagine someone who was hard-wired to feel maximal pleasure, all the time. Can you imagine a scenario in which this person wouldn't be an absolute waste of space?