If morality is totally non-predictive then it shouldn’t be in our model of the world. It’s like the sort of “consciousness” where in the non-conscious zombie universe, philosophers write the exact same papers about consciousness despite not being conscious. If morality is non-predictive, then even if we act morally, it’s for reasons totally divorced from morality! If morality is non-predictive, then when we try to act morally we might as well just flip a coin, because no causal process can access “morality”! That’s why morality has to predict things, and that’s why it has to be inside peoples’ heads. Because if it ain’t in peoples’ heads to start with, there’s no magical process that puts it there.
If morality is totally non-predictive then it shouldn’t be in our model of the world.
The point of morality is to change the world, not model it.
If morality is non-predictive, then even if we act morally, it’s for reasons totally divorced from morality!
If we act morally, the morality we are acting on predicts our actions. Your beef seems to be with the idea
that morality is not some universal causal law—that you have to choose it. There will be a causal explanation
of behaviour at the neuronal level, but that doesn’t exclude an explanation at the level of moral reasoning,any more than an explanation of a computers operation at the level of electrons excludes a software level explanation.
If morality is non-predictive, then when we try to act morally we might as well just flip a coin, because no causal process can access “morality”!
A causal process can implement moral reasoning just as it can implement mathematical reasoning.
Your objection is a category error. like saying a software is an immaterial abstraction that doesn’t cause a computer to do anything.
That’s why morality has to predict things, and that’s why it has to be inside peoples’ heads.
Morality is inside people’s heads since it is a form of reasoning. Where did I say otherwise?
OK. You didn’t get that morality is as predictive as you make it by acting on it. And you also didn’t get that there are more important things than prediction.
If morality is totally non-predictive then it shouldn’t be in our model of the world. It’s like the sort of “consciousness” where in the non-conscious zombie universe, philosophers write the exact same papers about consciousness despite not being conscious. If morality is non-predictive, then even if we act morally, it’s for reasons totally divorced from morality! If morality is non-predictive, then when we try to act morally we might as well just flip a coin, because no causal process can access “morality”! That’s why morality has to predict things, and that’s why it has to be inside peoples’ heads. Because if it ain’t in peoples’ heads to start with, there’s no magical process that puts it there.
The point of morality is to change the world, not model it.
If we act morally, the morality we are acting on predicts our actions. Your beef seems to be with the idea that morality is not some universal causal law—that you have to choose it. There will be a causal explanation of behaviour at the neuronal level, but that doesn’t exclude an explanation at the level of moral reasoning,any more than an explanation of a computers operation at the level of electrons excludes a software level explanation.
A causal process can implement moral reasoning just as it can implement mathematical reasoning. Your objection is a category error. like saying a software is an immaterial abstraction that doesn’t cause a computer to do anything.
Morality is inside people’s heads since it is a form of reasoning. Where did I say otherwise?
Oh, okay, I take back my big rant then. Sorry :D
OK. You didn’t get that morality is as predictive as you make it by acting on it. And you also didn’t get that there are more important things than prediction.