Re: virus: bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Sat, 01 Aug 1998 15:57:52 -0400


Hi,

Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
> I think you're confusing emotions with judgements. The primary
> problem with moral judgements is that they are based on
> emotions, but "pretend" not to be. Emotions are great --
> absolutely essential to our survival, in fact, as well as being
> terrific fun, in many cases. But to pretend that there's
> something objective about a moral judgement -- as moral judges
> generally (always?) do -- is to entertain and propagate a
> delusion.

I think we agree in substance but perhaps not in words. You say "moral
judgments are based on emotions", I say that moral judgments, like
emotions, represent "hard-wired" responses to situations which our
childhood training has encoded into us. *I* think that properly trained,
moral judgments can be accurate -- e.g. a morality based on the value of
human life will rarely steer you wrong. Nevertheless, it's easy to let
your quick responses lead you into troublesome waters...

As to whether morality can ever be based on something "objective", I don't
know. The death of a human does seem pretty wrong, though...

ERiC