Saturday, June 19, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Moral High Ground
It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that not only is humanity intellectually challenged, its also morally challenged. If you're a member of the challenged group, you'll be wondering why we're morally challenged instead of simply noting it as a tautology and moving on.
Anyway ... moving on. Enough insults for the day.
The morally challenged includes all of us, from religious nutters to staunch atheists, from hippy liberals to right-wing military conservatives, who are moral realists. Unfortunately, most of us are moral realists, and moral realism as an ethical framework does such an amazingly shite job that it's probably going to do this planet a favour and drive us to mutual annihilation.
Moral realism is the belief that some things are intrinsically morally right or morally wrong. Its the belief that there are objective, context-free, correct (true) moral beliefs. Murder is wrong. Love is right. "Whoaa, there boy!" I hear you say. "Are you saying that murder is ok?". Well, no.You're an idiot - please go to the back of the line.
Like most things, its reasonably complex (read this if you're interested), hence the fact that its almost a tautology to conclude that we're both mentally and morally handicapped. However, the basic problem is that moral realism typically results in arbitrary and absolute beliefs such as "Marriage between blue people is wrong". This being the case, it's difficult to argue your point that banning marriage between blue people is kind of arbitrary, and not very nice for blue people. After all, they say, marriage between blue people is wrong - case closed.
Often people realise that what they're saying can seem arbitrary (because it is), so they will attempt to justify themselves based on (often arbitrary) religious teachings, or resort to 'because it's just not right!' i.e. their intuitive sense. Unfortunately our moral intuitive sense, though useful in our recent evolutionary past, has passed its use-by date and is now largely responsible for humanity's current tribal conflicts.
So, what to do? Don't ask me, but I reckon (based on my vast experience and deep evidential knowledge) if we don't get our shit together in the next 15 to 20 years, we're screwed with a capital S. There are certainly solutions offered, but lets face it, we're only human. Its just not going to happen.
Anyway ... moving on. Enough insults for the day.
The morally challenged includes all of us, from religious nutters to staunch atheists, from hippy liberals to right-wing military conservatives, who are moral realists. Unfortunately, most of us are moral realists, and moral realism as an ethical framework does such an amazingly shite job that it's probably going to do this planet a favour and drive us to mutual annihilation.
Moral realism is the belief that some things are intrinsically morally right or morally wrong. Its the belief that there are objective, context-free, correct (true) moral beliefs. Murder is wrong. Love is right. "Whoaa, there boy!" I hear you say. "Are you saying that murder is ok?". Well, no.You're an idiot - please go to the back of the line.
Like most things, its reasonably complex (read this if you're interested), hence the fact that its almost a tautology to conclude that we're both mentally and morally handicapped. However, the basic problem is that moral realism typically results in arbitrary and absolute beliefs such as "Marriage between blue people is wrong". This being the case, it's difficult to argue your point that banning marriage between blue people is kind of arbitrary, and not very nice for blue people. After all, they say, marriage between blue people is wrong - case closed.
Often people realise that what they're saying can seem arbitrary (because it is), so they will attempt to justify themselves based on (often arbitrary) religious teachings, or resort to 'because it's just not right!' i.e. their intuitive sense. Unfortunately our moral intuitive sense, though useful in our recent evolutionary past, has passed its use-by date and is now largely responsible for humanity's current tribal conflicts.
So, what to do? Don't ask me, but I reckon (based on my vast experience and deep evidential knowledge) if we don't get our shit together in the next 15 to 20 years, we're screwed with a capital S. There are certainly solutions offered, but lets face it, we're only human. Its just not going to happen.
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