[MD] Knowing Right from Wrong

[Ham Priday]

Hi Platt --


Again you have entreated us with another fine morality essay that makes up 
for its circularity by being fun to read.

Professor Byrne writes with a deft hand, citing many theories but drawing 
few unequivocal conclusions.  One exception (I suspect the one that appeals 
to you) is the following:

"Everything, in short, is a natural phenomenon, an aspect of the universe as 
revealed by the natural sciences. In particular, morality is a natural 
phenomenon. Moral facts or truths - that boiling babies is wrong, say - are 
not additions to the natural world, they are already there in the natural 
world, even if they are not explicitly mentioned in scientific theories."

The logic of this assertion is really a tautology, however, since if 
everything is a natural phenomenon, morality is natural only because it is 
"something".

I side with "emotivist" view, that moral language doesn't have the function 
of stating moral facts but serves rather to express the speaker's attitudes. 
I like it because it reveals the fact that morality (even in the collective 
or universal sense) is an expression of the individual's feelings, that his 
his/her value sensibility.  If, as Byrne points out, there is no 'ought' or 
'ought not' in nature -- not even in human nature -- then it is man's 
response to value that is accountable for his moral judgments.  Says Bryne:

"Emotivism solves the problem of finding room for morality in the natural 
world quite neatly. No room needs to be made for moral facts, because there 
aren't any. But the absence of moral facts is no strike against moral talk, 
because it was never in the fact-stating line of work-it serves the function 
of expressing attitudes instead."

Implied in the emotivist theory is a conclusion which the author might have 
stated but didn't.  Since morals are not facts, individuals are all free to 
behave according to their own values; and if they value mankind, they will 
reach a moral consensus as to what is good or bad relative to human society. 
This is what we call a morality system.

Thanks for referring us to this thought-provoking essay.  (I may want to 
plagiarize parts of it for my own use.)

Happy Memorial Day weekend,
Ham