Can morality be objective? - a new perspective

Should you think about your duty, or about the consequences of your actions? Or should you concentrate on becoming a good person?

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thinkdr
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Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 1:16 am

Can morality be objective? - a new perspective

Post by thinkdr »

Can Morality ever be Objective :?:

What makes anything "objective"? Let us consider, for example, the proposition "The Sun has planets, including the planet, Earth." Most thinking people would concur that that proposition is objective. Why? Because astronomers reached a consensus that this is how they will employ language to refer to some data that they observe with their five senses.

The best I understanding I gained from the Philosopher of Science, Hans Vaihinger, is that a science is very-much like a trial-lawyer’s presentation of his client’s case: it is a hypothetical scenario. [See, for details see Vaihinger’s well-reasoned book, THE PHILOSOPHY OF AS IF.]

A scientific theory is purported to explain things the best the scientists know how to do so; yet it is all a hypothesis :!: This implies it is highly-subject-to- revision should better interpretations come along in time. What is good enough for scientists [regarding the latest and best formulation of reliable knowledge] ought to be good enough for the rest of us. The fact is that t their correlations are all hypothetical and tentative. Yet their statements I would argue are the very model of objectivity. The findings they issue are objective.

Even if you say,"it's raining outside," it is subject to testing ...say by your putting your nose up against the window and thus seeing (or failing to see) raindrops and puddles in the street. Until you do this, the sentence is a hypothesis (a guess) on your part. This alludes to The Correspondence Theory of Truth …which, along with the Coherence Theory of Truth, is widely-accepted as our best guide to truth.

Plane Geometry is able to be put on a blackboard, and in textbook form. and thus becomes universally-agreed-upon as objective - even though we know there are rival geometries which are just as "true" in their own domain. Would you agree that Plane Geometry is objective?? I would.
If anything is objective, it is :!:

What is the relevance of the above discussion to the topic: Can Morality Ever Be Objective? I set out to systematize Ethics into a coherent, teachable theory that could be explained in a classroom. Its premiss is in accord with the views of those philosophers who argue that an individual (a human life with a personality) has some value. After examining the idea, I reject the notion that 'morality' is a social construct shifting with the cultural winds – as Imp understands it to be.

For more details, see M.C. Katz, The Structure of Ethics. Ask Bing for a free pdf copy of it. Reflect on the points it makes. And if you are so inclined, let's have your review of it after you have had a chance to look it over.

Morality, according to some who have thought deeply about it, means principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad conduct with the focus on being morally-right and good, while avoiding doing wrong and evil.
As viewed in the new paradigm for Ethics, the Hartman/Katz theory, “morality” is a relation between an individual and that set of self-imposed principles. It helps if these standards derived within a sound, systematic, rational and logical Ethical Theory.

The concept, morality, is now a term in a system; it is to be understood as a measure of the degree to which an individual lives up to the standard (or set of such principles), how well he or she applies the set of standards to daily life.
If one expresses the principle(s) in everyday life, then one rates being described as having high morality. Also, and equally-important, morality in this new paradigm now indicates growth and moral- development throughout life. It recommends that we keep growing by adding new standards to live by as we progress through life – and actually live by them, practice them!
Questions? Comments? Discussion?
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