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I think you would quickly have to conclude that rape, murder, sexism and racism are genetic facts about humans; they're shared with the other animals we're desc
by cjbprime 12y ago
I think you would quickly have to conclude that rape, murder, sexism and racism are genetic facts about humans; they're shared with the other animals we're descended from, and they've been part of our history forever. I think if we held this definition, morality would not be very useful as a concept.
Here's an old debate between (professor) Peter Singer and (judge) Richard Posner, where Posner holds this claim that morality is based on these "tenacious moral intuitions" and Singer argues against him: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dialogues/features/2001/animal_rights/_2.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dialogues/fe...
- peteretep 12y agoAbility to perform an action doesn't impact on its morality. I would guess that empathy is genetic, and so a moral fact might be that causing undeserved pain to someone with whom you can empathise with is wrong. "Undeserved" of course is wooly at the point of expression. Fear of death I'd guess to also be genetic, so another moral fact might be that suicide outside of an overriding other moral purpose being wrong might constitute "moral fact", although like the last example, its expression is clouded by other non-fact morals that come in to play. Incest taboo seems to be genetically expressed too, so you can probably include that.
- cjbprime 12y agoIt sounds like you're cherry-picking which moral instincts you believe to be genetic, ignoring the ones you don't approve of. Why include empathy but not racism?