RE: A Case for Inherent Morality
June 21, 2021 at 9:24 am
(This post was last modified: June 21, 2021 at 9:35 am by The Grand Nudger.)
I think that it's probably fair to say that we're born moralizers...but whether that amounts to "doing it right" depends on a persons view of morality in general. For example, if natural utilitarian behaviors are the basis of moral propositions, the concern that we're doing something natural for effect wouldn't be a valid objection to their conclusion, though this still may not make the cut for inherent morality.
Could we breed or condition non moralizers, or could some breeding or conditioning failure produce them? That's really all that the question of any inherent morality boils down to. Would it be possible for there to be a non moralizing human being, by any means..because, if so, the quality is not and cannot be permanent essential and characteristic - and this holds regardless of the metaethical view we select.
Personally, I think that it would be difficult to maintain that a non moralizing human is somehow not human. We might consider them broken, inhumane, perhaps..but we would probably have to recognize that we're using terms of art, in that event, to levy the charge. I have no trouble accepting the notion that babies are born with what the researchers could deem a moral sense, but that's an effect of strongly suspecting that our moral sense, as we call it, is a retasked ability in contemporary populations (and I'm taking a long view of contemporaneity, 50k years plus or minus). It wasn't constructed to seek out the good, it's just good-for that..sometimes.
Could we breed or condition non moralizers, or could some breeding or conditioning failure produce them? That's really all that the question of any inherent morality boils down to. Would it be possible for there to be a non moralizing human being, by any means..because, if so, the quality is not and cannot be permanent essential and characteristic - and this holds regardless of the metaethical view we select.
Personally, I think that it would be difficult to maintain that a non moralizing human is somehow not human. We might consider them broken, inhumane, perhaps..but we would probably have to recognize that we're using terms of art, in that event, to levy the charge. I have no trouble accepting the notion that babies are born with what the researchers could deem a moral sense, but that's an effect of strongly suspecting that our moral sense, as we call it, is a retasked ability in contemporary populations (and I'm taking a long view of contemporaneity, 50k years plus or minus). It wasn't constructed to seek out the good, it's just good-for that..sometimes.
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