From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@ricochet.net)
Date: Sun Apr 22 2001 - 10:40:58 MDT
John Marlow wrote:
> Morality seems to be a human construct;
> certainly not inherent in the universe,
> which clearly couldn't care less.
Morality is NOT a human construct! The idea that morality obtains
from culture is one of the most harmful ideas of the 20th century,
whose insidious consequences can hardly be overstated. (To be sure,
traditions and laws issue injunctions as added layers.)
To a great degree, our morality is in our genes. (See Matt Ridley,
"The Origins of Virtue", and other recent works, email me for list.)
> And I'd argue that it is perfectly rational to conclude that
> such behavior [murder, mayhem, and genocide] is unacceptable,
> dangerous to society, and not to be tolerated. One needn't
> exercise or indeed possess emotions to reach this conclusion.
It's certainly not irrational to find murder, mayhem, and genocide
unacceptable, and I too advocate that we not tolerate it. But I
don't understand how you base your value judgments, ultimately, on
anything besides emotion, including your basic "wants". Care to
explain? (Hint: start with the big questions, why do we want to
live, why if we live do want to live we want to be better off
rather than worse off, why should there be anyone but me (or us).)
And avoid begging the question with "well, evolution made us that
way". True, but we already know that---that's how we got our
emotions.
Lee Corbin
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