Morality works without absolute moral truths
It is important, here, to stress the two different levels of explanation of behaviour in evolutionary theory: ultimate explanations are about why a type of behaviour was selected by evolution, while proximate explanations are about how such types of behaviour are generated by our cognition. Saying that our moral sense is designed to track the... See more
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
Ultimate vs. proximate explanations
[...] morality is not a set of rigid and stereotyped principles, but a flexible context-dependent calculator of what one must do to secure a good reputation and attract future cooperative investment from others.
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
moral rules are much more important to us than sporting rules because moral rules are the rules of the Game of Life , the one that determines our success and setbacks in life, at work, with friends or romantic partners, with family members, and so on. It makes perfect sense for us to have a moral sense that makes us care greatly about how the Game... See more
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
moral rules are the rules of the Game of Life
Having rejected the theories of the Good and the theories of the Right, Binmore labels his approach a theory of the Seemly, that is, a theory of morality as what is appropriate given social conventions about morality.
I try to capture this down-to-earth attitude to morality by calling it a theory of the seemly. Although theories of the seemly... See more
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
moral theory of the Seemly
[...] there is nothing arcane about game theory. On the contrary, what has to be explained in this chapter is embarrassingly easy. The exotic vocabulary and the fancy equations of game theory books are just more of the dust that scholars always kick up lest it be found out that what they have to say isn’t very profound. — Binmore (2005)11
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
binmore re: game theory
If this is the case, it is natural to ask where these rules come from: how are they constructed? One possible answer is radical cultural relativism . This position takes the view that different moral systems happen to be what they are in a given society for historically contingent reasons that might be arbitrary. These moral systems are not... See more
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
radical cultural relativism
Let’s assume we abandon moral realism. A question we can ask next is: ”OK, morality is not objective in an absolute way, but can moral statements nonetheless be considered true or false in another way?”
Here, one option is to say no. Moral statements are neither true nor false, because moral statements do not refer to a moral reality that can make... See more
Here, one option is to say no. Moral statements are neither true nor false, because moral statements do not refer to a moral reality that can make... See more
Lionel Page • Morality works without absolute moral truths
Criticism of robust realism . I previously discussed Parfit’s argument.5 His claim to only use reason to find moral truths is a bit incorrect. In the end, he relies on our moral intuitions as a kind of primary ground upon which to build his theory: he investigates our intuitions with thought experiments and tries to build a theory which... See more