It is the inverse of the theist assertion that we humanists live off the capital of religious morality when it is they who do morality right when they use facts and reason. Ours is objective,like science, in that anyone can discern actions for good or evil on people, other animals and the environment. From our evolved moral sense, we refine our empathy to include many others; hopefully for a planetary ethic as my friend Paul Kurtz admonishes. Our is situational: yea, one should lie when murderers ask where someone is. When such rules conflict, one must adjudicate. Like science again, ours is provisional- the best knowledge we have- and it is debatable.
I find it paradoxical that subjectivism underscores objective morality!
From John Beversluis we learn in ‘C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion," The Golden Rule is not a substantive moral rule from which we can deduce specific duties; it is a formal rule that requires impartiality. Its substantive moral content is provided by our preferences: not as Lewis would have us believe,in the sense of whatever we happen to like and dislike , but in the very different sense of our judgments of approval and disapproval- judgments that are often at odds with what we personally like or dislike and based on the insight that I as a rational being, I cannot reasonably ask people to treat me in certain ways unless I am willing to treat them in the same ways. Such judgments are subjective in the sense that they originate in the feelings of the people making them. But they are also objective in two important ways: first, they are universal and apply to everyone; second, they are based on the principles of equity and equality of treatment. So from the fact that moral judgments are subjective, it follows neither that they vary from person to person nor that they are just ’ private ideas’ in people’s minds.
Whether one considers, like me that subjectivism, underscores objective morality or not, wide-reflective subjectivism as Hume and Hobbes enunciate it and objective morality as I define it, both bind us- and any gods.
Religious morality stems from the simple subjectivism of those mean-hearted men of yore - their whims and tastes. No one now would endorse stoning children for cheeking their parents or command such nonsense about how women should act while menstruating.
Now, Beversluis notes that simple subjectivists can be consistently moral,not because they overlook their moral stance, as Lewis avers.
Anon I’ll note how Beversluis and Quentin Smith reflect on universal values.
Beversluis downplays universal values against Lewis’s support of them whilst Q. Smith notes how we ever observe the common decencies. I agree with Smith.
We humans world wide do indeed share a common morality to an extent in spite of cultural relativism. Yes, there are real differences, not based on lack of knowledge.
We come to consensus as with declaring the rights of children and women and forbidding slavery. We find that against Yahweh’s love of stoning, we should be humane.
Note how God Himself through His many religions and sects doth speak with a relativistic, forked tongue
With Plato, we humanists and some theists, find morality independent of Him. Either He follows morality Himself or He could make the bad the good, and it begs the question to bray that His nature is good. Definition cannot instantiate that!
Our make-up and consequences themselves as the ground of morality rather than some Ground of Being.
What is wrong with plural marriage and consensual adult incest, for insatnce.
May I be forgiven to say you write weird? It is difficult to follow your thoughts and I find I have to reread a few times. It seems to be the structure mostly. I’ll admit this may be me.
There is nothing wrong with plural marriages except they may be hard to manipulate. And If a man can have more than one wife, then the wives should have equal opportunity to have multiple husbands. Personally I find it all freaky and are happy with one to try and live and let live with.
There is nothing inherently wrong with consensual adult incest either. Mundo weird and offspring makes it undesirable in the extreme. But if it rocks your boat…