I don’t understand why it must be a given that things like love, truth, beauty, murder, etc.. are universal moral truths that are right or wrong independent of the person computing the morality function. I know you frown upon mentioning evolutionary psychology, but is it really a huge stretch to surmise that the more even-keeled, loving and peaceful tribes of our ancestors would out-survive the wilder warmongers who killed each other out? Even if their good behavior was not genetic, the more “moral” leaders would teach/impart their morality to their culture until it became a general societal truth. We find cannibalism morally repugnant, yet for some long isolated islander tribes it was totally normal and acceptable, what does this say about the universal morality of cannibalism?
In short, I really reading enjoyed your insight on evaluating morality by looking backwards from results, and your idea of a hidden function that we all approximate is a very elegant idea, but I still don’t understand how you saying “murder is wrong no matter whether I think it’s right or not” does not amount to a list of universal moral postulates sitting somewhere in the sky.
I don’t understand why it must be a given that things like love, truth, beauty, murder, etc.. are universal moral truths that are right or wrong independent of the person computing the morality function. I know you frown upon mentioning evolutionary psychology, but is it really a huge stretch to surmise that the more even-keeled, loving and peaceful tribes of our ancestors would out-survive the wilder warmongers who killed each other out? Even if their good behavior was not genetic, the more “moral” leaders would teach/impart their morality to their culture until it became a general societal truth. We find cannibalism morally repugnant, yet for some long isolated islander tribes it was totally normal and acceptable, what does this say about the universal morality of cannibalism?
In short, I really reading enjoyed your insight on evaluating morality by looking backwards from results, and your idea of a hidden function that we all approximate is a very elegant idea, but I still don’t understand how you saying “murder is wrong no matter whether I think it’s right or not” does not amount to a list of universal moral postulates sitting somewhere in the sky.