RE: On Moral Authorities
November 20, 2016 at 12:25 pm
(This post was last modified: November 20, 2016 at 12:27 pm by robvalue.)
A real something? What does that mean?
Moral choices can be better or worse towards specific goals. If we agree on some rough standards, then morality can be seen to improve or decline. But just saying "this is better/worse than that" does indeed not mean anything until you've defined what you're talking about. Morality isn't some inherent property, it's an abstract judgement made by sentient beings. (Or a way of studying behaviour, and the evolution of cooperative species, which is how morality came about.)
I think the mistake of attributing morality to "God" or whatever often comes about because people don't understand why people are moral. But the answer is simple; they want to be moral, in general. They evolved that way. They get nice feelings when they help people, and bad feelings when they hurt someone.
Moral choices can be better or worse towards specific goals. If we agree on some rough standards, then morality can be seen to improve or decline. But just saying "this is better/worse than that" does indeed not mean anything until you've defined what you're talking about. Morality isn't some inherent property, it's an abstract judgement made by sentient beings. (Or a way of studying behaviour, and the evolution of cooperative species, which is how morality came about.)
I think the mistake of attributing morality to "God" or whatever often comes about because people don't understand why people are moral. But the answer is simple; they want to be moral, in general. They evolved that way. They get nice feelings when they help people, and bad feelings when they hurt someone.
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