there’s no strong evidence to assume that this will give us very good insight to our preferred ethical theories,
It seems generally that you have decided that formal, logical, philosophical ethics is a map, and the territory is our feelings, would you agree?
I do think that all of philosophical ethics is an attept to make a map and that the territory is our intuitions. Moral philosophies are deductive systems with the rules deduced from moral statements which are only “true” to the extent that they represent how we feel about something.
A major problem with mapping the territory of our feelings is that our feelings don’t follow the kind of consistency that lends them easily towards making a map. If one day I feel it is wrong to steal a candy bar, but the next day I feel it is wrong to deny me a candy bar, well that is how the feelings go. A “map” of that territory might try to tell me that one or the other of those feelings is wrong, but to the extent it does that it will not actually be a very good map.
We might certainly get caught in discussions of which of various imperfect mapping schemes is the best, but by what good reason can we deny we are mapping intuitions and that at various times my intuitions are at odds?
We are driven to be very obviously moral, it is more important to be seen to be moral than to actually be moral according to many many studies on the matter. And that drive is not something we are conscious of generally. It is hard for me to see a commitment to any kind of moral philosophy as much more than this: taking a public posture that clearly sets you up as appearing to be gigantically moral. To be so moral that you pursue moral rules to the most ethereal logical absurdities and then very publicly try to live that way.
I suppose one might say that my study of the maps of moral systems have lead me to conclude that none of them are very good, and that I don’t really need one because the intuitions I have with such a map are at odds with each other as the intuitions I have with no map at all. So my moral theory is to do what feels right at any given moment and not waste too much effort on looking for something deeper.
It seems generally that you have decided that formal, logical, philosophical ethics is a map, and the territory is our feelings, would you agree?
I do think that all of philosophical ethics is an attept to make a map and that the territory is our intuitions. Moral philosophies are deductive systems with the rules deduced from moral statements which are only “true” to the extent that they represent how we feel about something.
A major problem with mapping the territory of our feelings is that our feelings don’t follow the kind of consistency that lends them easily towards making a map. If one day I feel it is wrong to steal a candy bar, but the next day I feel it is wrong to deny me a candy bar, well that is how the feelings go. A “map” of that territory might try to tell me that one or the other of those feelings is wrong, but to the extent it does that it will not actually be a very good map.
We might certainly get caught in discussions of which of various imperfect mapping schemes is the best, but by what good reason can we deny we are mapping intuitions and that at various times my intuitions are at odds?
We are driven to be very obviously moral, it is more important to be seen to be moral than to actually be moral according to many many studies on the matter. And that drive is not something we are conscious of generally. It is hard for me to see a commitment to any kind of moral philosophy as much more than this: taking a public posture that clearly sets you up as appearing to be gigantically moral. To be so moral that you pursue moral rules to the most ethereal logical absurdities and then very publicly try to live that way.
I suppose one might say that my study of the maps of moral systems have lead me to conclude that none of them are very good, and that I don’t really need one because the intuitions I have with such a map are at odds with each other as the intuitions I have with no map at all. So my moral theory is to do what feels right at any given moment and not waste too much effort on looking for something deeper.