[MD] A Science of Morals

[david buchanan]

I love Sam Harris. It's been a few days since I listened to his talk but one overall impression remains. His main point, I think, is that we should stop pretending that morality is not subject to intellectual scrutiny, that morality is a kind of intelligence. I think he was making a case against cultural relativism. We should stop pretending that it's impossible to make judgements about the quality of another culture's morals. Of course, we're talking about Sam Harris so he's also saying we should stop pretending that morality is defined by the bigoted and hateful things that Churchians so often say. As Harris pointed out, worry about gay marriage causes more concern than genocide and mass starvation. What kind of retarded morality does it take to prioritize things that way? 
He's not suggesting that we're going to learn the natural laws of morality from brain surgeons or rocket scientists. I think the idea is just that morality is a reality about which we can and do have knowledge. Like Pirsig, he's saying that we should stop pretending morality is limited to church morals and religious traditions. I think he's right and we need to get smart about being good.

Either that, or he's making a scientific case for the superiority of bikinis. Either way, I'm with him.




> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:24:02 -0400
> From: peterson.steve at gmail.com
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: [MD]  A Science of Morals
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Recently, Sam Harris gave a TED talk.  He has a book coming out called
> "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values."
> 
> I hope you check it out:
> 
> http://www.project-reason.org/newsfeed/item/moral_confusion_in_the_name_of_science3/
> 
> Regardless of what he will be able to do with a science of morals, I
> think he will start an important conversation about ethics.
> 
> Best,
> Steve
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