This is perhaps one of the most naive things I have ever heard.
The basic axioms of morality have changed in this case but the culture that is being lived in is working under a different set of axioms of morality. Were the culture at large to accept without reservation the axioms of morality presented then we would be able to say that perhaps it all adds up to normality, but most likely not the normality that we are currently living under.
I have to wonder if people are familiar with other cultures and with history, such as the effects of Social Darwinism on the cultures of every state that accepted that idea. Or the age of Reason, or the sexual revolution, or Soviet Russia, or the Aztec, or any other number of cultures throughout history that have different thoughts on morality and the effects those thoughts had on the culture.
Perhaps some of the best examples is what we are seeing the Middle East where the thoughts of what is acceptable for dictators to do changed and that change in thinking has felled regimes that had lasted for decades. Back in October or November if one had gone to anyone in the Egypt and asked if the government would be changed in a few months they would have laughed. The ideas at that point had already changed but society had not yet caught up. When society caught up to those changes, which happened when someone acted on those new ideas during an everyday occurrence normality was shattered forever. Turns out it didn’t all add up to normality.
So to recap, changing the basis for metaethics may or may not add up to normality. For any one person to make that change it still does add up to roughly normality but as more people change then the evidence is strong that it most likely does not add up to whatever the current normality is. What the new normality is will only be known once it has emerged.
Our cultures may be ‘normal’, but as you point out human culture is incredibly diverse. I wonder if we’re not seeing the beginnings of a major cultural shift in the US as well.
This is perhaps one of the most naive things I have ever heard.
The basic axioms of morality have changed in this case but the culture that is being lived in is working under a different set of axioms of morality. Were the culture at large to accept without reservation the axioms of morality presented then we would be able to say that perhaps it all adds up to normality, but most likely not the normality that we are currently living under.
I have to wonder if people are familiar with other cultures and with history, such as the effects of Social Darwinism on the cultures of every state that accepted that idea. Or the age of Reason, or the sexual revolution, or Soviet Russia, or the Aztec, or any other number of cultures throughout history that have different thoughts on morality and the effects those thoughts had on the culture.
Perhaps some of the best examples is what we are seeing the Middle East where the thoughts of what is acceptable for dictators to do changed and that change in thinking has felled regimes that had lasted for decades. Back in October or November if one had gone to anyone in the Egypt and asked if the government would be changed in a few months they would have laughed. The ideas at that point had already changed but society had not yet caught up. When society caught up to those changes, which happened when someone acted on those new ideas during an everyday occurrence normality was shattered forever. Turns out it didn’t all add up to normality.
So to recap, changing the basis for metaethics may or may not add up to normality. For any one person to make that change it still does add up to roughly normality but as more people change then the evidence is strong that it most likely does not add up to whatever the current normality is. What the new normality is will only be known once it has emerged.
The only normal thing is change, perhaps?
Our cultures may be ‘normal’, but as you point out human culture is incredibly diverse. I wonder if we’re not seeing the beginnings of a major cultural shift in the US as well.
Edit—please disregard this post