Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Diamond
Morality says what ought to be, not merely what is.

What is best for the cohesiveness of a society is also an "ought to be" because just like religious morality (as derived from societal mores), it is also not universally followed -- see the current subject of eugenics.

As there is no fact about the world that can vindicate the inescapable authority that moral judgments purport to have, you have, in terms of your own worldview no justification for endorsing ANY moral proposition at all.

Why not? It's what has been learned over thousands of years of civilization. Religious morality is built upon this rock, so can offer no more validity other than someone telling you a deity said it is so.

49 posted on 03/02/2009 9:57:00 AM PST by antiRepublicrat (Sacred cows make the best hamburger.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies ]


To: antiRepublicrat
What is best for the cohesiveness of a society is also an "ought to be" because just like religious morality (as derived from societal mores), it is also not universally followed -- see the current subject of eugenics.

Good can be taken to be what is best for the cohesiveness of a society only if it is antecedently the case that cohesiveness of a society is itself "good." You are still assuming what you must prove.

The reason that a naturalistic worldview offers no justification for endorsing ANY moral proposition at all is that you have to commit the naturalistic fallacy, or Hume's rule against deriving an "ought" from an "is" to do so. Reason, logic, and rationality can tell you what to do to achieve a particular end, but it cannot tell you what end you ought to achieve in the first place.

Cordially,

50 posted on 03/02/2009 12:33:02 PM PST by Diamond
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson