tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post115439299341811494..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: The Evolution of Moral JustificationAlonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-1154479043826193242006-08-01T18:37:00.000-06:002006-08-01T18:37:00.000-06:00Well, I wanted an easy-to-imagine possibility that...Well, I wanted an easy-to-imagine possibility that illustrated my point without getting distracted into a discussion of whether it is true. So, I cut the "true or false" question out of the example and allowed the opponent to assume it is false.<BR/><BR/>This does not mean that I think it is true. I lack the interest in answering that question one way or the other. A proof of invalidity does not require true premises.Alonzo Fyfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-1154472112790279322006-08-01T16:41:00.000-06:002006-08-01T16:41:00.000-06:00Let us imagine that our evolution took a different...<I>Let us imagine that our evolution took a different course. Let us say that a tribe of pre-humans evolved a disposition to kill others who did not look like them. Whenever they came across a different pre-human tribe, if that tribe looked like them, they expressed a genetic disposition toward favoritism. Whenever they came across a pre-human tribe that looked different, they reacted with a genetic disposition to slaughter them and to move "looks-like-me" families into the territory of those who "looks-not-like-me."</I><BR/>How is this a different course? It looks to me like that's exactly the disposition we *do* have. (If that was your point, I apologize; you may be being a bit too subtle.)<BR/><BR/>That, of course, is one of the problems with evolutionary ethics: we not only have dispositions to resist murder, rape and incest, but also dispositions to *commit* murder and rape, as well as torture, genocide, etc (and to only get outraged about those things when they happen to someone we know or consider "like us"). You can't use evolution as a yardstick to separate the "good" dispositions from the "bad" dispositions because evolution is mindless and therefore amoral.<BR/><BR/>"Evolutionary ethicists" are really just using evolution as a cosmic Rorshach test: they see in it what they want to see in it. But then, most theistic ethical systems are exactly the same: God is invoked to justify the believer's or priest's prior beliefs, since there is no way of objectively determining what God *really* wants (or why you should listen to him anyway).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com