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Mark S

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The evidence is in 1) the explanatory power for virtually all the diversity, contradictions, and strangeness of descriptively moral behaviors as parts...
April 30, 2024 at 21:32
To be clear, my subject is the science of what is descriptively moral, not any hypothetical (and incoherent in my mind) science of what is prescriptiv...
April 30, 2024 at 21:10
I've only read a few introductory summaries about Hegel but did not see that connection.
April 30, 2024 at 19:23
In no way does the science of morality (as the study of what is and has been descriptively moral) make our ultimate moral goals an empty phrase. Rathe...
April 30, 2024 at 19:17
We disagree if ethics refers to the same thing as morality. To avoid confusion, let’s just use the word morality and avoid the word ethics. The heart ...
April 30, 2024 at 19:09
The subject of this thread is "Defining What the Science of Morality Studies". The science of morality, like the rest of science, is silent regarding ...
April 30, 2024 at 03:44
I don’t know what a “Science of Ethics” could usefully study and have never heard of anyone who claimed that as their field. I would have to be convin...
April 30, 2024 at 03:30
Hi Banno, Right. As has long been pointed out, we have no disagreement there. Really? Excluding ought claims from the rest of science does not diminis...
April 30, 2024 at 00:33
Due to advances in game theory in the last 50 years or so, it has become possible to reduce past and present cultural moral norms and our moral senses...
April 29, 2024 at 20:40
Rigid ideology implies imperative oughts or delusions. I advocate for scientific truth of the usual provisional kind. Why do you call the principles t...
April 29, 2024 at 18:35
How about understanding why our moral sense and cultural moral norms exist? Are you an advocate of NOT knowing the simple principles that underly and ...
April 29, 2024 at 17:11
What those ultimate moral goals are has been debated by philosophers for a long time and I expect that debate to continue. There may be no final, univ...
April 29, 2024 at 17:08
Bob, Thanks for taking the time to comment. I see Sam Harris as an embarrassment to the Science of Morality field. His science is minimal, and I (and ...
April 29, 2024 at 17:03
It seems an appropriate time to write a post describing the different perspectives in the present state of the science of morality and my synthesis of...
March 15, 2024 at 20:34
Do you know of any speculative fiction by authors knowledgeable about moral philosophy regarding the philosophical implications of the evolutionary sy...
March 15, 2024 at 17:47
I have started composing a thread on the state of the science of morality and my synthesis of that science. Give me a week or so to post it, and then ...
March 15, 2024 at 17:36
, The topic of this thread is the science of morality which studies why our moral sense and cultural moral norms exist. “Moral science” implies a ‘sci...
March 15, 2024 at 17:27
Excellent. You aptly describe my perspective also, including Stoicism being the best philosophical therapy for those who are suffering. I hope you did...
March 15, 2024 at 14:39
I am glad you find them interesting. The references include several different perspectives on the science. What I have presented in this forum is my s...
March 15, 2024 at 03:01
The references are representative of the literature I am using. What I propose here is a synthesis of this literature and, in that sense, a personal p...
March 14, 2024 at 03:37
You are incorrect. Can you say why you think it is not? How is someone's preference for the moral principle that is most harmonious with people's mora...
March 14, 2024 at 02:11
Sophistry implies clever arguments that make the worse argument appear to be the better. I don't believe I am clever enough for sophistry. Wikipedia s...
March 14, 2024 at 01:34
Some of the peer-reviewed literature: You can connect with it by googling morality as cooperation on google scholar. But rather than dump you off into...
March 14, 2024 at 01:09
Tom, see my reply about its bindingness to Amadeus https://thephilosophyforum.com/profile/15230/mark-s.
March 14, 2024 at 00:40
Amadeus, this question merits a careful answer. I’ll describe: 1) What makes it “universally moral” 2) What kind of ought that origin implies. 3) What...
March 13, 2024 at 23:19
Responding in order to your above comments: I propose a highly robust hypothesis based on its remarkable explanatory power for the huge, superficially...
March 13, 2024 at 00:07
A thread about the state of the science of morality might be well worthwhile. I’ll give that some more thought.
March 12, 2024 at 00:30
Are you claiming that science cannot study what motivates/facilitates ethical judgment or moral conduct? Our moral sense and cultural moral norms moti...
March 12, 2024 at 00:27
Nice study. Thanks for posting. We could summarize the results as "moral idiots" are bad at cooperation. That is the point.
March 11, 2024 at 02:08
Of course, empathy and other emotions are not cooperation strategies. Empathy and the other emotions I mentioned motivate behaviors that are heuristic...
March 11, 2024 at 02:06
Cooperation strategies, such as direct and indirect reciprocity, are species-independent and innate to our universe because the simple mathematics the...
March 11, 2024 at 01:31
‘Morality as Cooperation” as a hypothesis that explains past and present cultural moral norms and our moral sense has two parts (which I was not inten...
March 10, 2024 at 16:52
From the OP, "... the science of morality can study why our moral sense and cultural moral norms exist. There is a growing consensus that “human moral...
March 09, 2024 at 18:29
I apologize for my delay in responding. I understand you to propose, where => is read as “produces” Empathy and other relevant parts of human nature =...
March 09, 2024 at 17:46
Right, my intent was that what I have written is consistent with this position.
March 05, 2024 at 16:26
Regarding interactions between groups, it seems workable to apply the same definition of what is universally moral as within groups: “behaviors that s...
March 05, 2024 at 16:21
My perspective is that 'morality' as "what everyone ought to do regardless of their needs and preferences" does not exist. But 'morality' as "a set of...
March 05, 2024 at 15:52
It has been a common assumption that descriptively moral behavior’s diversity, contradictions, and strangeness showed they were based on no unifying p...
March 04, 2024 at 20:30
Hi Tom, Though here I address people with backgrounds or at least interest in moral philosophy, my ultimate goal is to make Morality as Cooperation us...
March 04, 2024 at 18:36
I was an aeronautical engineer in my working career. I expect a bird who was able to understand aerodynamics would find it quite useful to learn how t...
March 04, 2024 at 17:31
As I said in the OP, There are many perspectives in moral philosophy. Some philosophers may find these results from the science of morality helpful to...
March 04, 2024 at 02:41
To claim "Cooperation explains morality” is a philosophical leap I would not make and science definitely can’t. “Morality” here can be interpreted as ...
March 03, 2024 at 22:26
Hello 180 Proof! Thanks for commenting. I agree that trying to reduce the philosophical understanding of morality (such as habits of normative non-rec...
March 03, 2024 at 21:53
What it has to do with "morality" is that morality as cooperation is the underlying principle that explains why past and present cultural moral norms ...
March 03, 2024 at 21:07
I did not say morality is for cooperation. Given a standard philosophical understanding of “morality” as what everyone ought to do, I see no justifica...
March 03, 2024 at 20:21
I did not include the derivation of what is universally moral by morality as cooperation in the OP to keep it short and because it was unnecessary to ...
March 03, 2024 at 19:45
That our moral sense and cultural moral norms are parts of cooperation strategies is a robust hypothesis that 1) explains virtually all past and prese...
March 03, 2024 at 19:13
Yes, it is descriptively moral in human societies to solve cooperation problems that prevent the society from achieving its goals, for instance genoci...
March 03, 2024 at 18:45
Living is what life does. Living is not an obligation of life because life has no moral obligation to live regardless of needs and preferences.
July 12, 2023 at 16:01
I don’t understand your explanation of how you go from the fact that: “…living is the first 'thing' an organism does and is what makes it an organism”...
July 11, 2023 at 02:19