The fact that some other creature might instead want to know the answer to the question “what is 6*7?” (which also has an objectively true answer) is irrelevant.
How does that make “what is 2+3?” less real?
Similarly, how does the fact that some other beings might care about something other than morality make questions of the form “what is moral? what should I do?” non objective?
It’s nothing to do with agreement. When you ask “ought I do this?”, well… to the extent that you’re not speaking empty words, you’re asking SOME specific question.
There is some criteria by which “oughtness” can be judged… that is, the defining criteria. It may be hard for you to articulate, it may only be implicitly encoded in your brain, but to the extent that word is a label for some concept, it means something.
I do not think you’d argue too much against this.
I make an additional claim: That that which we commonly refer to in these contexts by words like “Should”, “ought” and so on is the same thing we’re referring to when we say stuff like “morality”.
To me “what should I do?” and “what is the moral thing to do?” are basically the same question, pretty much.
“Ought I be moral?” thus would translate to “ought I be the sort of person that does what I ought to do?”
I think the answer to that is yes.
There may be beings that agree with that completely but take the view of “but we simply don’t care about whether or not we ought to do something. It is not that we disagree with your claims about whether one ought to be moral. We agree we ought to be moral. We simply place no value in doing what one ‘ought’ to do. Instead we value certain other things.” But screw them… I mean, they don’t do what they ought to do!
“what is 2+3?” has an objectively true answer. The fact that some other creature might instead want to know the answer to the question “what is 6*7?” (which also has an objectively true answer) is irrelevant.
What’s failing?
“what is 2+3?” has an objectively true answer.
The fact that some other creature might instead want to know the answer to the question “what is 6*7?” (which also has an objectively true answer) is irrelevant.
How does that make “what is 2+3?” less real?
Similarly, how does the fact that some other beings might care about something other than morality make questions of the form “what is moral? what should I do?” non objective?
It’s nothing to do with agreement. When you ask “ought I do this?”, well… to the extent that you’re not speaking empty words, you’re asking SOME specific question.
There is some criteria by which “oughtness” can be judged… that is, the defining criteria. It may be hard for you to articulate, it may only be implicitly encoded in your brain, but to the extent that word is a label for some concept, it means something.
I do not think you’d argue too much against this.
I make an additional claim: That that which we commonly refer to in these contexts by words like “Should”, “ought” and so on is the same thing we’re referring to when we say stuff like “morality”.
To me “what should I do?” and “what is the moral thing to do?” are basically the same question, pretty much.
“Ought I be moral?” thus would translate to “ought I be the sort of person that does what I ought to do?”
I think the answer to that is yes.
There may be beings that agree with that completely but take the view of “but we simply don’t care about whether or not we ought to do something. It is not that we disagree with your claims about whether one ought to be moral. We agree we ought to be moral. We simply place no value in doing what one ‘ought’ to do. Instead we value certain other things.” But screw them… I mean, they don’t do what they ought to do!
(EDIT: minor changes to last paragraph.)
I just want to know, what is six by nine?
“nobody writes jokes in base 13” :)