Eisegetes: This is my third posting now, and I hope I will be forgiven by the powers that be…
Your (a): I was not talking about a universal, but of a personal scalar ordering. Somewhere inside everybody’s brain there must be a mechanism that decides which of the considered options wins the competition for “most moral option of the moment”. Once the existence of this (personal) ordering is acknowledged (rationality), we can either disavow it (amorality) or try our best with what we have [always keeping in mind that the mechanisms at work are imperfect] - including math (utilitarianism).
Your (b): I view morality not as the set of rules postulated by creed X at time T but as the result of a genetically biased social learning process. Morality is expressed through it’s influence on every (healthy) individual’s personal utility function.
“The statement that X is wrong can be taken to mean that X has bad consequences according to some metric. It can also mean (or be used to perform the functions of) the following variants:”
(1,2,4,6) X makes me feel bad because it triggers one of my morality circuits.
(3,5) X makes me nervous because [relevant group] might retribute.
(7) I do not want X to occur.
(8) ? [Sorry, I don’t understand this one.]
Eisegetes: This is my third posting now, and I hope I will be forgiven by the powers that be…
Your (a): I was not talking about a universal, but of a personal scalar ordering. Somewhere inside everybody’s brain there must be a mechanism that decides which of the considered options wins the competition for “most moral option of the moment”. Once the existence of this (personal) ordering is acknowledged (rationality), we can either disavow it (amorality) or try our best with what we have [always keeping in mind that the mechanisms at work are imperfect] - including math (utilitarianism).
Your (b): I view morality not as the set of rules postulated by creed X at time T but as the result of a genetically biased social learning process. Morality is expressed through it’s influence on every (healthy) individual’s personal utility function.
“The statement that X is wrong can be taken to mean that X has bad consequences according to some metric. It can also mean (or be used to perform the functions of) the following variants:”
(1,2,4,6) X makes me feel bad because it triggers one of my morality circuits.
(3,5) X makes me nervous because [relevant group] might retribute.
(7) I do not want X to occur.
(8) ? [Sorry, I don’t understand this one.]