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RE: Arguments against objective morality

in #philosophy8 years ago

I thank you for the well articulated response, even if I disagree. Your argument for truth and morality being objective, as best as I could tell, rests on them being words to describe the objective reality. They're not. We live in an objective reality, yes, but humans share a different reality as well, one composed of symbols, history, taboos, social restraints, art. We are an autistic species, so to speak, all sharing a make belief world that, although real enough to us, is not the same as the physical reality.

The laws of physics are objective, as they describe an objective reality. The "laws" of morality are subjective, as they describe a humanity's shared delusion.

The philosopher Fichte once said something akin to “men cannot be free in a society that isn't, and a society can't be free if its men aren't”. Just stating that two courses of action are morally wrong, as deontological ethics does, isn't helpful in determining what is the right course of action. And it doesn't help us to beat Fichte's paradox and attain freedom. This doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't help to postulate everyone should just be better.

I'll illustrate what I mean. Imagine a Catholic family under Nazi regime, harboring a Jew family to keep them safe. Is it moral to do so? Objectively speaking, no. They are pretending to uphold the system and paying taxes to the opressor. Objectively, they should oppose the system outright. Of course, this would mean the Catholic family would die and the Jew family would die. A subjective analysis, taking consequences as parameter, would lead to a lesser evil.

You could contend that if everybody opposed the regime, then an even greater good would arise, which of course is true. But it is not your prerogative to control everyone else's behavior. If freedom is foundational in morality, then it follows that we must make moral choices as individuals, not as societies. If those choices bear good results, they might be repeated elsewhere, and become an accepted tradition. That is how we escape from Fichte's paradox: with individual moral actions over time, each responding to their own circumstances the best they can.

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