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Mark S

['Member', 'Subscriber']Joined: January 16, 2023 at 17:31Last active: October 28, 2025 at 20:1814 discussions292 comments
Location: Port Townsend, Washington

Bio

My background is in engineering and physics.

Since I retired, I have been interested in understanding the origins and functions of our moral sense and cultural moral norms. I look forward to discussing and exploring those origin's ethical implications, if any, on moral philosophy’s big questions: “How should I live?”, “What is good?”, and “What are my obligations?”.

I am specifically hoping for conversations on ethical naturalism, normativity, and presenting moral philosophy in ways that will be culturally useful.

Discussions (14)

Comments

In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Hanover, I want to thank you for prompting me about how I might usefully communicate this information to people who are religious. It triggered some p...
October 19, 2025 at 01:50
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
I disagree that my sketch of an approach to religious people attempts to convince a religious person to give up on revelation and rely on reason. It e...
October 18, 2025 at 05:19
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Hanover, Here is a very rough draft of one approach Ithat might encourage religious people to consider what science can tell them about morality as co...
October 17, 2025 at 17:09
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
I have little interest in converting anyone (unless their morality really is despicable). My interest is in presenting morality as cooperation in ways...
October 17, 2025 at 04:24
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Your use of the word morality is as an answer to ought questions such as "How should I live?", "What are my obligations?", and "What should our ultima...
October 17, 2025 at 01:59
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Hanover, you are pointing out a very real problem for how religious people will or will not benefit from understanding the evolutionary origins of cul...
October 17, 2025 at 01:46
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Regarding Protagoras, In retelling the perhaps common myth of how Zeus gave people a moral sense, Protagoras explained that the function of our moral ...
October 17, 2025 at 01:18
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Your comment suggested how I might improve my abstract. Here is the updated version. I hope it is clearer. Abstract There is a growing scientific cons...
October 16, 2025 at 23:56
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
[ Right. I am not proposing any moral premises that would enable answering moral ought questions such as “How should I live?” and “What are my obligat...
October 16, 2025 at 23:39
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
ProtagoranSocratist, Would you agree that the design of the human body is encoded in our DNA? In comparison, the encoding of the behaviors that implem...
October 16, 2025 at 23:19
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
All cultures have moralities. America has subcultures with contradictory moral norms. Morality as cooperation explains the origins and functions of co...
October 16, 2025 at 20:16
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
I prefer to keep this thread on the topic of morality as a cooperation.
October 15, 2025 at 19:02
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Copernicus, You can choose liberty as an over-riding ultimate goal if you like. But you should be aware of the high price in mental and material well-...
October 15, 2025 at 18:25
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
No problem for me. But I would point out that the hypothesis that evolutionary game theory explains morality is supported by its explanatory power for...
October 14, 2025 at 04:06
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Evolutionary game theory is in the domain of mathematics and morality as cooperation is in the domain of science since it is a claim about why cultura...
October 13, 2025 at 02:32
In: How Morality as Cooperation Can Help Resolve Moral Disputes  — view comment
Hi L'éléphant, thanks for commenting. Since “cultural moral norms are those norms whose violation is commonly thought to warrant punishment of at leas...
October 12, 2025 at 03:47
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Anthony, their nature and if “moral facts” exist is a big deal in moral philosophy. My goal here is to explore “Is there a “moral fact” about the func...
July 09, 2025 at 17:02
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Hi hypericin, A lot of science has been done in the last 50 years on morality as cooperation. Just this week, I came across a 2022 Master's Philosophy...
July 06, 2025 at 00:45
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Yes, I enjoyed it also.
July 04, 2025 at 18:01
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
A human body is an organism, it would not be useful nomenclature to call it an ecosystem. Our gut and skin bacteria form ecosystems where competition ...
July 04, 2025 at 17:58
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
J, the meaning of “Traditional moral talk” is clearer. To me, what is “actually moral” is closer to the subset of descriptively moral behaviors (coope...
July 03, 2025 at 17:59
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Unenlightened, I have thought about cooperation in nature. The examples of bees/flowers, lichens (fungus and algae/cyanobacteria living together, each...
July 03, 2025 at 17:51
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Not quite right about “not referring to actual rights and wrong”. If anyone refers to their moral sense’s judgments, they are referring to what is at ...
July 02, 2025 at 02:46
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Of course, my goal here is also to arrive at truth. In aid of that, I am doing my best to honestly portray the data, as I understand it, about cultura...
July 02, 2025 at 02:34
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
J, no rush. I find that the quality of discussions on complex issues improves if I refrain from replying immediately. My responses to you may often be...
June 30, 2025 at 15:10
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Bob, your definition of moral fact is ambiguous with respect to the kind of ought it refers to. You assured me that this ought does not refer to “What...
June 30, 2025 at 15:01
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
This is a discussion forum about ethics. Ethics includes the morality, or lack of it, of our moral sense’s intuitions and past and present cultural mo...
June 30, 2025 at 01:39
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Hi Bob, I see a lot of ambiguity about what people mean by the term moral facts. I’ll take your word for it that imperative oughts are not as common a...
June 30, 2025 at 01:35
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Tom, Hobbes is correct that purely self-interested agents will, without punishment, simply follow their own interests, leading to his description of p...
June 30, 2025 at 01:30
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
J, thanks for your careful response. I thought I was clear in my OP that the subject was the usefulness of understanding the function of cultural mora...
June 30, 2025 at 01:22
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
The prosecution is making a category error. The scientific hypothesis Morality as Cooperation, which is about cultural moral norms and our moral sense...
June 27, 2025 at 18:33
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
I did not find any contradictions between the study's results and morality as cooperation. The behaviors the babies exhibited that were identified as ...
June 27, 2025 at 18:26
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
You might check my answer to Count, who made some of the same points. https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/997480
June 27, 2025 at 18:13
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Tom, it is not a Hobbesian view, but there are two categories of descriptively moral behaviors. As I described, the first category of moral norms incr...
June 27, 2025 at 18:08
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Count, so many cogent points! First, I reiterate that the hypothesis is that cultural moral norms and our moral sense can virtually all be explained a...
June 27, 2025 at 17:44
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
In science, facts (of science’s usual provisional kind) can be established by criteria such as explanatory power, simplicity, no competitive hypothesi...
June 26, 2025 at 02:51
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
As I said to T, From my OP And yes "we can certainly (and have) cooperated to achieve violent and oppressive goals which cause mass suffering". Right....
June 26, 2025 at 02:39
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
As I said to Count, You may not care about the species, but I expect you will find you prefer to live in a cooperative society.
June 26, 2025 at 02:23
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Hi T, the scientific claim about our moral sense is that the reason it exists is because it motivates cooperation strategies. Without punishment, free...
June 26, 2025 at 02:17
In: Is there a “moral fact” about the function of cultural moral norms and our moral sense?  — view comment
Count, I essentially agree and see my OP as consistent with your point. For example, I said: Also, when thinking about the relevance of reproductive f...
June 26, 2025 at 02:02
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
Okay. I'll further consider the usefulness to ethicists of the science of descriptively moral behaviors. Perhaps I can produce something better than t...
May 01, 2024 at 20:49
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
Counterexamples refer to the hypothesis. Surely you can think of a few cultural moral norms that seem unlikely to be parts of cooperation strategies.
May 01, 2024 at 17:46
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
What I intended to convey was that am trying to restrict my claims to science's domain. Science's domain includes: 1) Understanding why our moral sens...
May 01, 2024 at 17:41
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
I am glad to hear that you advocate none of the following views (which I falsely thought were implied by your comments). I think all three are ridicul...
May 01, 2024 at 17:06
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
This thread's topic is Defining What the Science of Morality Studies. It is not a synthesis of the evidence for behaviors motivated by our moral sense...
May 01, 2024 at 16:50
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
The science of descriptively moral behaviors (what I have been referring to as the Science of Morality) cannot tell us what we imperatively ought to d...
May 01, 2024 at 16:23
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
Tom, I am learning to describe to philosophy majors how the science of descriptively moral behaviors can 1) be culturally useful on its own and 2) mig...
May 01, 2024 at 04:36
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
I am not trying to do ethics. I am trying to 1) show how the science of descriptively moral behaviors can be useful in ethical investigations into wha...
May 01, 2024 at 00:17
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
You appear to not understand what is included in empirical evidence for scientific truth.
April 30, 2024 at 23:59
In: Defining what the Science of Morality Studies  — view comment
Right. I would add that some will cooperatively conspire against others (or other societies) while believing they are acting morally.
April 30, 2024 at 21:36
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