Mark S

To be meaningful don't we have to define what is good as a state-of-affairs?

Morality as Cooperation Strategies is a non-zero-sum game. This produces many opportunities to increase the benefits of cooperation without harming ot...

Increased well-being (or flourishing) for all, and lessened suffering are common moral 'ends' in moral philosophy.

Thanks for the supportive comment. Interesting that you suggest giving priority to behavior. Past and present cultural moral norms are all about behav...

All, The antinatalism and abortion topics you have brought up deserve their own threads. I'd appreciate it if discussions here were kept more relevant...

Moral ‘ends’ (goals) are a state of affairs, or perhaps an idea about a state of affairs as unenlightened suggests. Moral ‘means’ are actions. Murder ...

I agree with your reading of Gert described here and why heuristics are so useful. And the ten rules are Gert’s answer to “what is default behavior th...

Humm… I don’t get what you mean by “more epistemic than moral notions”. I do know, empirically and independently of any of Gert’s claims, that the ten...

I hope we can agree that: Cultural moral codes have existed quite comfortably for all of history without a unified theory or fundamental principles. T...

Right, but referring to “normative systems” rather than something like “cultural moralities” could lead to confusion about when a system is normative ...

Tom, you did not address your question to me, but briefly: 1) Gert provides a useful criterion for what is normative - what we ought or ought not do. ...

Sorry for the delay in responding. I had immediately composed my reply but then did not hit the post comment button. You are misreading Gert. He says:...

I’d like to keep this thread focused on the cultural usefulness of Gert’s approach to normativity and what ‘is’ moral. But perhaps some contrast with ...

I hear you complain that my definition of what is descriptively moral is not normatively moral. Perhaps you are confusing what is descriptively moral ...

The added “increasing the benefits of cooperation” defines the ‘means’ by which harm is to be lessened - cooperation. That knowledge is needed to accu...

Humm… How does Gert’s definition of what is descriptively moral based on “lessening of harms” explain, as you claim: (A) “slaves must obey their maste...

You are correct that Gert does not mention science. My parenthetical “(a subject within science's what 'is' domain)” was meant to be my own clarifying...

Right! Yes, “slaves must obey their masters” has too often been a cultural moral norm enforced by an ingroup to exploit an outgroup. The reason that "...

You did not ask a question, but I will try to clarify what I have said that is relevant. As you know, what morality descriptively ‘is’ and what morali...

I see Gert’s definition of “What morality is: An informal public system applicable to all moral agents that has lessening of harms suffered by those p...

I am a fan of Gert's approach to morality - starting from what morality 'is' and then, given those circumstances, asking, "What would all rational peo...

I see MACS as most useful when applied in societies with "pluralist worldviews about values and morality". By explaining what the cultural moral norms...

All, Nice video by Gert. Except for some quibbles, I agree with his points. Are any of you wondering how Gert’s morality can be so concrete? He can be...

In your experience, who else, aside from Gert, uses morally normative to refer to "a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put fo...

That is not what I have observed, but I understand that it could be your experience.

In my experience, it is not unusual for religious people to be able to think rationally about morality. Examples include changing minds within the Epi...

To what extent can religious people be rational about their religion-based moral beliefs? Consider: A person who delusionally interprets their religio...

The first thing to understand about how individuals can apply MACS in their lives is that well-intentioned people around the world already practice he...

:up:

MACS would assist in refining cultural moral norms the same means cultural norms are refined now - by a chaotic system influenced at least in part by ...

Like past and present cultural moral norms, our psychologically satisfying inclination for retribution for evil deeds such as murder is part of cooper...

Banno, no I don’t see the joke and I expect neither would Bernard and Josuha Gert who have maintained the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on...

Tom, You bring up important issues about my adaptation of Gert’s definition of morally normativity – how to judge the normativity of moral claims. Are...

Tom, please read my above response to PhilosophyRunner on the same topic. And consider MACS's actual proposed moral principles rather than some kind o...

This may be true in a sense but is not relevant. You are still focused in the weeds of our diverse, contradictory, and strange past and present cultur...

You are not recognizing the innate pruning of domination norms by MACS’ ultimate source. The ultimate source of MACS is not past and present cultural ...

Thanks for posting again, I think I understand you better this time. Yes, I must show how domination moral norms are pruned (nice turn of phrase) to n...

Understanding MACS as “protomorality” sounds like a helpful perspective. It could help bridge the intellectual framing gap between how understanding w...

No, the two claims are not contrary. As I argue in this thread, MACS is useful for resolving many disputes about moral norms (disputes about what we o...

Cultural moral norms (cultural norms whose violation is commonly considered to deserve punishment) are parts of strategies that solve cooperation prob...

Does MACS define what we imperatively ought to do? No, of course not. I have no reasons to believe such imperative oughts ever have or ever will exist...

Good question! The three threads are about three different applications of MACS. One long thread on the subject would be hopelessly confusing about wh...

I suggest you reread my first post. “What if cultural moral norms track cooperation strategies?”. It will help clarify that the examples you mention a...

You are more familiar with Prinz and Nussbaum’s work than I am. But I would reiterate how revealing it is to move up a few levels of causation from em...

These are “circle of moral concern issues”. From my "What if cultural moral norms track cooperation strategies?" post’s OP: “What about its limits? ,,...

No. I am discussing the cultural usefulness of understanding that past and present cultural moral norms are parts of cooperation strategies. Of course...

As to what I claim, referring once again to my OP, I argue that this knowledge is useful for resolving many disputes about when and if cultural moral ...

The OP proposes that the function of past and present cultural moral norms is solving cooperation problems. That is what cooperation strategies do. Ho...

The cooperation that morality enables does so by solving problems that are innate to our universe. The nature of moral norms is to solve conflicts. If...

First, remember that "past and present cultural moral norms are parts of strategies that solve cooperation problems" is claimed provisionally true sci...