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contractualist OP t1_j92ck17 wrote

Thanks for the review. The biological adaption relates to descriptive morality, whereas I focus on normative morality.

If the problem is with discovering non-reasonably rejectable reasons, then it's only a problem of administrability. This is fine, and not a problem with the philosophy in principle. However, what else would morality be, the code of conduct of our treatment of others, if it could not be reasonably accepted by others? I'll discuss this in a later piece.

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Daotar t1_j92fb6f wrote

> Thanks for the review. The biological adaption relates to descriptive morality, whereas I focus on normative morality.

That's far too quick and dismissive. I too am talking about the normative notion, there's just nothing more to that notion than the biological fact of it, nothing beyond that contingency that gives it anymore normative oomph (but nor should we care). But such an account is of course still normative because it describes morality as being action guiding. This is the standard sort of move that Darwinian philosophers like Mackie, Rorty, Ruse, Street, or Joyce will make. It's about naturalizing morality, not about presenting a "merely descriptive" account as opposed to a normative one. Even idealist philosophers like Rawls and Kant are simply giving a "descriptive account" of our intuitions about morality and justice in the same way I am, but this doesn't make their account any less normative than my own or that of other evolutionary ethicists.

> If the problem is with discovering non-reasonably rejectable reasons, then it's only a problem of administrability.

It's not, it's about defining what it means to be "reasonable". Like, sure, there is the further problem of actually figuring out what reasonable people would agree to, but that's largely derivative of your definition of what constitutes a reasonable person.

> However, what else would morality be, the code of conduct of our treatment of others, if it could not be reasonably accepted by others?

It could be a fact of the matter. It could be a collective delusion. It could be an optimal solution to a particular set of game theory problems. There are many things it could be beyond the Kantian notion you're endorsing.

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contractualist OP t1_j92h4wd wrote

Kant certainly wasn't providing a descriptive account, whereas Rawls didn't make his views very clear. Evolution is useful for explaining our desires, but it doesn't justify why these desires should be respected or what we should do given these desires.

There are no "should" statements when examining morality through a pure evolutionary lens and morality would be the same (the derivatives of the values of freedom and reason) even if we had evolved differently and developed different desires. Given a different evolutionary trajectory, our moral rules might be different, but meta-ethics remains the same.

That being said, science is useful for discovering the moral principles of the social contract, but it doesn't play a role in the first principles discussion that I'm focusing on.

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Daotar t1_j92lyjh wrote

> There are no "should" statements when examining morality through a pure evolutionary lens

If you really think that, I'd suggest picking up either Mackie's Ethics, Kitcher's The Ethical Project, or Joyce's The Evolution of Morality.

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contractualist OP t1_j92rg6n wrote

Its not even morality, just logic. You can't get a "should" conclusion from "is" premises. This is just the naturalistic fallacy.

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Daotar t1_j92vx8z wrote

> You can't get a "should" conclusion from "is" premises.

Not according to Mackie, Kitcher, and Joyce. The naturalistic fallacy is an extremely controversial position that has gone out of favor in recent decades due to critiques from people like Rawls, Rorty, and Mackie.

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bumharmony t1_j92milh wrote

Kant compromises his theory of ethics for sure. No statist system can be apriori.

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