The Warring States of NPF - View Single Post - Sam Harris: Science Can Answer Moral Questions

Toast · 03-23-2010, 07:43 PM

While I liked some of his ideas from the interview, I kind of agree with Magus. About the only objective thing you can say about morality would go something like this: 'All countries have laws regarding acceptable behavior. All societies have norms regarding acceptable behavior. There are consequences for choosing to follow or not to follow these rules of acceptable behavior.'

We may, at some point, find out exactly how our brain codes moral values, or rather, how moral values develop neurologically, but other than that, there's little more that could be scientifically said about them.

You could, if you had nothing better to do with your time, create a scale of life situations/ actions and give them egalitarian scores on how they affect a person's physical/mental well-being, and try to call that objective, but I guarantee that no matter how comprehensive such a list would be, you wouldn't think of something that someone else would, and then people would disagree with the scores you give to each item.

03-23-2010, 07:43 PM	#4
Toast Existential Toast Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Georgia Posts: 440	While I liked some of his ideas from the interview, I kind of agree with Magus. About the only objective thing you can say about morality would go something like this: 'All countries have laws regarding acceptable behavior. All societies have norms regarding acceptable behavior. There are consequences for choosing to follow or not to follow these rules of acceptable behavior.' We may, at some point, find out exactly how our brain codes moral values, or rather, how moral values develop neurologically, but other than that, there's little more that could be scientifically said about them. You could, if you had nothing better to do with your time, create a scale of life situations/ actions and give them egalitarian scores on how they affect a person's physical/mental well-being, and try to call that objective, but I guarantee that no matter how comprehensive such a list would be, you wouldn't think of something that someone else would, and then people would disagree with the scores you give to each item. __________________ “How dare you! How dare you stand there acting like your brand of suffering is worse than anybody else’s. Well, I guess that’s the only way you can justify treating the rest of us like dirt.” ~ Major Margaret Houlihan (Mash) “If we’re going to be damned, let’s be damned for what we really are.” ~ Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)