But if I understand you, you are saying that human morality is human and does not apply to all sentient beings. However, as long as all we are talking about and all we really deal with is humans, then there is no difference in practice between a morality that is specific to humans and a universal morality applicable to all sentient beings, and so the argument about universality seems academic, of no import at least until First Contact is achieved.
What I am really saying is that the notion of “morality” is so hopelessly contaminated with notions of objective standards and criteria of morality above and beyond humanity that we would do good to find other ways to think and talk about it. But to answer you directly in terms of what I think about the two ways of thinking about morality, I think there is a key difference between (1) “our particular ‘morality’ is purely a function of our evolutionary history (as it expresses in culture)” and (2) “there is a universal morality applicable to all sentients (and we don’t know of other similarly intelligent sentients yet)”.
With 1, there is no justification for a particular moral system: “this is just the way we are” is as good as it gets (no matter how you try to build on it, that is the bedrock). With 2, there is something outside of humanity that justifies some moralities and forbids others; there is something like an objective criterion that we can apply, rather than the criterion being relative to human beings and the (not inevitable) events that have brought us to this point. In 1 the rules are in some sense arbitrary; in 2 they are not. I think that is a huge difference. In the course of making decisions in day-to-day existence—should I steal this book? should I cheat on my partner? -- I agree with you that the difference is academic.
In particular, a lot of moral non-realists are wrong.
Yes, they’re wrong, but I think the important point is “what are they wrong about”? Under 1, the claim that “it is merely a matter of [arbitrary] personal opinion” is wrong as an empirical matter because personal opinions in “moral” matters are not arbitrary: they are derived from hardwired tendencies to interpret certain things in a moralistic manner. Under 2, it is not so much an empirical matter of studying human beings and experimenting and determining what the basis for personal opinions about “moral” matters is; it is a matter of determining whether “it’s merely a matter of personal opinion” is what the universal moral law says (and it does not, of course).
I concede that I was sloppy in speaking of “traditional notions”, although I did not say that there were no philosophical traditions such that...; I was talking about the traditions that were most influential over historical times in western culture (based on my meager knowledge of ethics based on a university course and a little other reading). I had in mind thousands of years of Judeo-Christian morality that is rooted in what the Deity Said or Did, and deontological understandings or morality such as Kant (in which species-indepedendent reason compels us to recognize that …), as well as utilitarianism (in the sense that the justification for believing that the moral worth of an action is strictly determined by the outcome is not based on our evolutionary quirks: it is supposed to be a rationally compelling system on its own, but perhaps a modern utilitarian might appeal to our evolutionary history as justification).
On the topic of natural law tradition, is it your understanding that it is compatible with the idea that moral judgments are just a subset of preferences that we are hardwired to have tendencies regarding, no different in kind to any other preference (like for sweet things)? That is the point I’m trying to make, and it’s certainly not something I heard presented in my ethics class in university. The fact that we have a system that is optimized and pre-configured for making judgments about certain important matters is a far cry from saying that there is an objective moral law. It also doesn’t support the notion that there are moral facts that are different in kind from any other type of fact.
It seems from skimming that natural law article you mentioned that Aquinas is central to understanding the tradition. The article quotes Aquinas as ‘the natural law is the way that the human being âparticipatesâ in the eternal law’ [of God]. It seems to me that again, we are talking about a system that sees an objective criterion for morality that is outside of humanity, and I think saying that “the way human beings happened to evolve to think about certain actions constitutes a objective natural law for human morality” is a rather tenuous position. Do you hold that position?
What I am really saying is that the notion of “morality” is so hopelessly contaminated with notions of objective standards and criteria of morality above and beyond humanity that we would do good to find other ways to think and talk about it. But to answer you directly in terms of what I think about the two ways of thinking about morality, I think there is a key difference between (1) “our particular ‘morality’ is purely a function of our evolutionary history (as it expresses in culture)” and (2) “there is a universal morality applicable to all sentients (and we don’t know of other similarly intelligent sentients yet)”.
With 1, there is no justification for a particular moral system: “this is just the way we are” is as good as it gets (no matter how you try to build on it, that is the bedrock). With 2, there is something outside of humanity that justifies some moralities and forbids others; there is something like an objective criterion that we can apply, rather than the criterion being relative to human beings and the (not inevitable) events that have brought us to this point. In 1 the rules are in some sense arbitrary; in 2 they are not. I think that is a huge difference. In the course of making decisions in day-to-day existence—should I steal this book? should I cheat on my partner? -- I agree with you that the difference is academic.
Yes, they’re wrong, but I think the important point is “what are they wrong about”? Under 1, the claim that “it is merely a matter of [arbitrary] personal opinion” is wrong as an empirical matter because personal opinions in “moral” matters are not arbitrary: they are derived from hardwired tendencies to interpret certain things in a moralistic manner. Under 2, it is not so much an empirical matter of studying human beings and experimenting and determining what the basis for personal opinions about “moral” matters is; it is a matter of determining whether “it’s merely a matter of personal opinion” is what the universal moral law says (and it does not, of course).
I concede that I was sloppy in speaking of “traditional notions”, although I did not say that there were no philosophical traditions such that...; I was talking about the traditions that were most influential over historical times in western culture (based on my meager knowledge of ethics based on a university course and a little other reading). I had in mind thousands of years of Judeo-Christian morality that is rooted in what the Deity Said or Did, and deontological understandings or morality such as Kant (in which species-indepedendent reason compels us to recognize that …), as well as utilitarianism (in the sense that the justification for believing that the moral worth of an action is strictly determined by the outcome is not based on our evolutionary quirks: it is supposed to be a rationally compelling system on its own, but perhaps a modern utilitarian might appeal to our evolutionary history as justification).
On the topic of natural law tradition, is it your understanding that it is compatible with the idea that moral judgments are just a subset of preferences that we are hardwired to have tendencies regarding, no different in kind to any other preference (like for sweet things)? That is the point I’m trying to make, and it’s certainly not something I heard presented in my ethics class in university. The fact that we have a system that is optimized and pre-configured for making judgments about certain important matters is a far cry from saying that there is an objective moral law. It also doesn’t support the notion that there are moral facts that are different in kind from any other type of fact.
It seems from skimming that natural law article you mentioned that Aquinas is central to understanding the tradition. The article quotes Aquinas as ‘the natural law is the way that the human being âparticipatesâ in the eternal law’ [of God]. It seems to me that again, we are talking about a system that sees an objective criterion for morality that is outside of humanity, and I think saying that “the way human beings happened to evolve to think about certain actions constitutes a objective natural law for human morality” is a rather tenuous position. Do you hold that position?