Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Post 29. 04/15/2018 continued . . .

BothAnd Morality

Moral Reality or Relativity?

Ethical behavior by individuals toward others, and by groups toward individuals or other groups, requires general principles that are common to both parties. Those higher standards are typically based on some mutually respected authority, such as a king, or god, or in the case of modern humanists & secularists, Nature. For centuries, the divine right of kings to legislate was taken for granted, just as the final authority of the gods was seldom questioned. But in the 21st century’s freewheeling democratic societies, all rules & rulers are subject to challenge. So, it becomes harder each year to find some standard that we can all agree on. Which is why the Enlightenment thinkers proposed that universal human Reason take the place of conflicting  sectarian Faiths. Sadly, many people lack faith in their own reasoning ability, and are skeptical that even the smartest of fallible humans are capable of discerning good & evil without supernatural help.

That misanthropic notion is based on the old Either/Or fallacy, that we must make a fateful choice between Good or Evil. If the gods are indeed running the routine affairs of this world, then we need to call upon their help to provide clear-cut solutions to difficult dilemmas. But a critical appraisal of prayers & sacrifices & divinations, reveals that relying on the opaque will of the gods is about as effective as coin-flipping3. So those of us who find the gods unhelpful must seek other means for making hard choices. And one way to balance opposing opinions on moral questions is to rise above subjective viewpoints to gain a broader objective perspective. A secular morality requires that we see our personal behavior through the other person’s eyes. That “interchangeability of perspectives” is the principle behind the almost universally accepted Golden Rule.

Moral Relativists admit that ethical behavior is at least partly innate, in the sense of “moral emotions”. And Moral Realists accept that the specific rules we agree to live by are culturally learned limitations on our actions. So, the BothAnd method is to blend those natural and cultural ethical systems into a practical way of living together in post-tribal modern societies. That means we must try to see ourselves as both individuals and as members of various groups. Nature provides us with motives for both ME and US behaviors. But complex multi-cultures often place our cave-man instincts in awkward untenable positions. So we have learned to resort to “god-given” Reason to help us decide, not soley on the basis of “what is”, but also of “what ought to be” in a perfect world. Thus, our unique reasoning ability allows us to view our petty little dilemmas from G*D’s ideal point of view, from above & beyond the dualities of the real world.  As Navarick concluded, to get beyond “is” we must get beyond nature.

The moral absolutism of some religious sects and political wings leads to evil treatment of out-groups. But moral relativism provides no clues to moral decisions in multi-cultural contexts. Each belief system has its good & bad points. So the BothAnd approach will be to find a rational balance point between merciless rigid rules and feckless flexible tolerance. We can ask ourselves what would Mother Nature do?4 Then, we can research G*D’s lawbook5 to find examples of stable symmetries in the real world that we can emulate in our human-ruled societies. 

End of Post 29

Moral Absolutism
and
Moral Relativism
merge in
BothAnd ism

BothAnd
principle
is not
the solution.
It’s an attitude
toward
solutions.

BothAnd
morality
is not
about rules &
regulations,
but about
personal virtue
and
character.

3. Divination :
   In fact, most forms of augury – prophecy, tea leaves, birds entrails, palmistry, horoscopes, and such – depend on random patterns as an empty vessel for  the imagination, to allow the soothsayer to fill it with whatever seems to fit the occasion, without fear of contradiction.

4. Natural Truth :
   The scientific method is the best way we’ve found to separate subjective personal opinions from objective natural & cultural facts. But isolated studies are still opinions, until they have attained statistical validity. So time & replication are essential to spotting real truths and trends.
   Like Nature, science evolves. When accepted facts become fossilized, they are no better than scriptural solutions to ancient problems. So as societies change, our under-standing of the causes of conflict must keep pace in order to keep the peace.

5. G*D’s Revelation :
 “The Creation speaks a universal language, independent of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.”
Thomas Paine
Age of Reason, pg. 69