Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 165 posts

Re: Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

#21

Post by brasky »

ikken wrote: post #17

The article doesn't provide anything to back the claim that moral opinions may be universally, non-subjectively true. The cartoonist example is deeply flawed. We're outraged because this event violated our deepest beliefs and values we hold dear, not because it violated some universal eternal moral law. We also know that there were people that weren't saddened by this event too. This is the problem I have with many p…

You might like to read this https://board.freedomainradio.com/page/books/universally_pre...

Re: Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

#22

Post by jarin »

spiritplumber wrote: post #11

There are facts. There are moral positions. What are moral facts?

They're things that seem to exist for people who believe in absolute morality stemming from a higher power. Let's just ignore the problem that no two people who believe in absolute morality can seem to exactly agree on what is absolutely moral and what isn't.

Re: Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

#23

Post by dikaiosune »

When I was a boy, if you wanted to talk philosophy you reasoned from first principles.

Apparently now you can just take whatever half-baked ideas you already have in your head, hold them as the truth, and wantonly criticize anyone or any system that slights those beliefs.

Also, we had to walk up hill both ways to school in the snow. /s

Turns out that living in a pluralistic, modern society makes it really hard to reason about moral truths when claimed moral facts are so tightly coupled to cultural baggage. I argue that from a practical perspective, our best bet is moral consensus.

Re: Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

#24

Post by javert »

ikken wrote: post #17

The article doesn't provide anything to back the claim that moral opinions may be universally, non-subjectively true. The cartoonist example is deeply flawed. We're outraged because this event violated our deepest beliefs and values we hold dear, not because it violated some universal eternal moral law. We also know that there were people that weren't saddened by this event too. This is the problem I have with many p…

I'm not defending the article, but you are wrong.

Stealing from others is bad if it decreases your pleasure and it is good if it increases your pleasure.

That is objective.

Re: Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

#26

Post by ChrisGranger »

peteretep wrote: post #14

> Conversely, many of the things we once “proved” turned > out to be false. For example, many people once thought > that the earth was flat Is this satire?

Didn't you know that the Earth was once proven flat? /snark

I think it's an example of Poe's Law.

Post reply on HN