Q&A: Philosophy and Morality
Philosophy and Morality
Question
How is it even possible (including according to the synthetic approach) to examine and clarify values and whether they are justified?
Answer
You can only rely on your moral intuitions, think them through carefully, and derive conclusions from them. It is exactly the same way that you cannot really determine whether there is a wall in front of me or not. I can only rely on my eyes and my senses.
Discussion on Answer
That claim is not relevant. I was comparing it in the sense that in every field there are first principles. I did not say that every first principle has the same level of certainty and agreement.
And what could be the first principle of morality?
It seems to be nothing more than a subjective feeling with no real grounding.
It seems that way. It doesn’t seem that way to me.
There is still a difference.
On the factual plane, there are the senses—which one can rely on with almost complete certainty, and from there continue on the basis of intuition. More or less everyone reports the same senses; they are not instilled by the environment; intuition only tells us that they do in fact reflect something of the real world.
On the plane of values, there is no stable foundation to start from. Values are created within society and culture, they are strongly disputed in other groups, and even if everyone agreed about them—it seems quite reasonable to think they are not real features of the world, but simply convenient.