Quote:
Originally Posted by nguirado
I don't mean to start a fight. Most of my friends are atheists or irreligious. Nothing you said contradicts what I said. In regards to morality and ethics, you can say and defend anything you want.
The only authority you can use is that a particular opinion on morality, if held by everyone, would create a "worse" society, sort of like what Kant held. This is no argument for an objective morality that holds for everybody (such an idea is to be found in the concept of the natural law, but that necessitates an author of nature).
It's like deciding which rules for a particular game would make it more fun. The rules aren't inviolate. They're there to facilitate a certain result.
Respectfully, except for physical reality, one can hold any morality one wants to since it's just a social construct anyways and doesn't exist independently of our opinion.
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Hello, nguirado, and since I don't believe I said it earlier, Welcome to MobileRead.
I hope you don't feel I'm fighting with you, as that was certainly not my intent. I've disagreed with others in this thread, then turned around and gave them Karma for something with which I agree. One of the goals, I believe, of this thread is to be able to exchange ideas and viewpoints on some rather weighty issues without animosity. So far, we've had some spirited exchanges, but they've been pretty civil. If I've failed to convey that, or if my tone has come across as offensive, please accept my apologies.
I personally believe that Kant was on to something with his statement about "the moral law within." I don't believe this law to be of supernatural origin, however. I think as a species, we've evolved a certain degree of empathy with our fellow denizens of this planet, and I believe that's why a variation of The Golden Rule is found in virtually all cultures. Kant's Categorical Imperative, in my opinion, is simply a variation on this theme. In addition, we seem to have an innate sense of fair play that makes it's appearance in early childhood, probably long before children first learn to cry, "That's not fair!" over a perceived injustice. As I see it, cultures differ in the particulars of their moral standards, but all of them begin with empathy and a sense of fair play. To that extent, and to that extent only, I am a moral absolutist.