Wisp, what is good and what is bad? Is it not self-evident that killing others is bad and saving a life is good? How can you accept any framework in which these are false?
I reject moral statements like “deserve” along with traditional conceptions of good and evil. I stand by this even in extreme cases like “killing is evil” or “criminals deserve punishment” for a two reasons:
a) Inherently relative: Things simply exist. Likewise, events simply happen. We should not place labels on things beyond our understanding. Our judgments (e.g. good or bad) are based on ignorance and emotion.
b) No bright-line: Even if we assume absolute labels hold, so what? Its enforcement, justice, is at best loosely correlated with morality.
Is killing bad if you are certain you will be attacked otherwise? What if you’re almost certain? Sixty percent?
Is it acceptable to kill dolphin? A pig? An onion? A 3-week fetus? 7-months? Is there an intelligence threshold? Does the utility we derive matter?
Is lying to prevent someone from hurting others good or bad?
What if your banker YOLOs your deposits into stock options? Then sells 10x and gives it back to you? After donating half the profit to starving children?
This nuance is why we have “reasonable basis,” juries, and lawyers. We can resolve these questions through law, but our legal framework is the genetics of the society organism and not an absolute set of ethics.
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I find some combination of the following palatable:
a) Expressivism: “Good” and “bad” are not objective truths; they only express the speaker's opinion. When someone says “murder is bad,” they are saying “boooo murder!” On the other hand, “helping people is good” translates to “yay, helping people!”
b) Power of Acting (Spinoza): “Good” is whatever increases one’s power of acting whereas “evil” or “bad” is whatever reduces it.” Murder is not inherently bad but is typically bad because it weakens society and worsens other’s perceptions of the murderer, severely limiting the murderer’s power of acting. It follows that altruism, in the sense of self-sacrifice, cannot exist.