Are these religious people? I mean, come on, where do you get moral realism if not from some kind of moral metaphysics?
From abstract reason or psychological facts, or physical facts, or a mixture.
There is a subject called economics. It tells you how to achieve certain goals, such as maximising GDP. It doesn’t do that by corresponding to a metaphysical Economics Object, it does that with a mixture of theoretical reasoning and examination of evidence.
There is a subject called ethics. It tells you how to achieve certain goals, such as maximising happiness....
There is a subject called ethics. It tells you how to achieve certain goals, such as maximising happiness....
Well there’s the problem: ethics does not automatically start out with a happiness-utilitarian goal. Lots of extent ethical systems use other terminal goals. For instance...
Of course economics doesn’t have the well-established laws of physical science: it wouldn’t be much of an analogy for ethics if it did.But having an epistemology that doens’t work very well is not the same as having an epistemology that requires non-natural entities.
The main problem with economics is not its descriptive, but its predictive power. Too many of economics’ calculations need to suppose that everyone will behave rationally, which regular people can’t be trusted to do. Same problem with politics.
From abstract reason or psychological facts, or physical facts, or a mixture.
There is a subject called economics. It tells you how to achieve certain goals, such as maximising GDP. It doesn’t do that by corresponding to a metaphysical Economics Object, it does that with a mixture of theoretical reasoning and examination of evidence.
There is a subject called ethics. It tells you how to achieve certain goals, such as maximising happiness....
Well there’s the problem: ethics does not automatically start out with a happiness-utilitarian goal. Lots of extent ethical systems use other terminal goals. For instance...
“Such as”
Sufficient rationality will tell you how to maximize any goal, once you can clearly define the goal.
Rationality is quite helpful for clarifying goals too.
Problem is, economics is not a science:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-laws-of-economics-dont-exist/274901/
Of course economics doesn’t have the well-established laws of physical science: it wouldn’t be much of an analogy for ethics if it did.But having an epistemology that doens’t work very well is not the same as having an epistemology that requires non-natural entities.
The main problem with economics is not its descriptive, but its predictive power. Too many of economics’ calculations need to suppose that everyone will behave rationally, which regular people can’t be trusted to do. Same problem with politics.