Human beings are physically/genetically/mentally similar within certain tolerances; this implies there is one system of ethics (within certain tolerances) that is best suited all of us
It does not imply that there exists even one basic moral/ethical statement any human being would agree with, and to me that seems to be a requirement for any kind of humanity-wide system of ethics. Your ‘one size fits all’ approach does not convince me, and your reasoning seems superficial and based on words rather than actual logic.
All humans as they currently exist, no. But is there a system of ethics as a whole that humans, even currently disagreeing with some parts of it, would recognize as superior at doing what they really want from an ethical system that they would switch to it? Even in the main? Maybe, indeed, human ethics are so dependent on alleles that vary within the population and chance environmental factors that CEV is impossible. But there’s no solid evidence to require assuming that a priori, either.
By analogy, consider the person who in 1900 wanted to put together the ideal human diet. Obviously, the diets in different parts of the world differed from each other extensively, and merely averaging all of them that existed in 1900 would not be particularly conducive to finding an actual ideal diet. The person would have to do all the sorts of research that discovered the roles of various nutrients and micronutrients, et cetera. Indeed, he’d have to learn more than we currently do about them. And he’d have to work out the variations to react to various medical conditions, and he’d have to consider flavor (both innate response pathways and learned ones), et cetera. And then there’s the limit of what foods can be grown where, what shipping technologies exist, how to approximate the ideal diet in differing circumstances.
It would be difficult, but eventually you probably could put together a dietary program (including understood variations) that would, indeed, suit humans better than any of the existing diets in 1900, both in nutrition and pleasure. It wouldn’t suit sharks at all; it would not be a universal nutrition. But it would be an objectively determined diet just the same.
The problem with this diet is that it wouldn’t be a diet; it would be many different diets. Lots of people are lactose intolerant and it would be stupid to remove dairy products from the diet of those who are not. Likewise, a vegetarian diet is not a “variation” of a non-vegetarian diet.
Also, why are you talking about 1900?
Maybe, indeed, human ethics are so dependent on alleles that vary within the population and chance environmental factors that CEV is impossible. But there’s no solid evidence to require assuming that a priori, either.
I think the fact that humans can’t agree on even the most basic issues is pretty solid evidence. Also, even if everyone had the same subjective ethics, this still would result in objective contradictions. I’m not aware of any evidence that this problem is solvable at all.
It does not imply that there exists even one basic moral/ethical statement any human being would agree with, and to me that seems to be a requirement for any kind of humanity-wide system of ethics. Your ‘one size fits all’ approach does not convince me, and your reasoning seems superficial and based on words rather than actual logic.
All humans as they currently exist, no. But is there a system of ethics as a whole that humans, even currently disagreeing with some parts of it, would recognize as superior at doing what they really want from an ethical system that they would switch to it? Even in the main? Maybe, indeed, human ethics are so dependent on alleles that vary within the population and chance environmental factors that CEV is impossible. But there’s no solid evidence to require assuming that a priori, either.
By analogy, consider the person who in 1900 wanted to put together the ideal human diet. Obviously, the diets in different parts of the world differed from each other extensively, and merely averaging all of them that existed in 1900 would not be particularly conducive to finding an actual ideal diet. The person would have to do all the sorts of research that discovered the roles of various nutrients and micronutrients, et cetera. Indeed, he’d have to learn more than we currently do about them. And he’d have to work out the variations to react to various medical conditions, and he’d have to consider flavor (both innate response pathways and learned ones), et cetera. And then there’s the limit of what foods can be grown where, what shipping technologies exist, how to approximate the ideal diet in differing circumstances.
It would be difficult, but eventually you probably could put together a dietary program (including understood variations) that would, indeed, suit humans better than any of the existing diets in 1900, both in nutrition and pleasure. It wouldn’t suit sharks at all; it would not be a universal nutrition. But it would be an objectively determined diet just the same.
The problem with this diet is that it wouldn’t be a diet; it would be many different diets. Lots of people are lactose intolerant and it would be stupid to remove dairy products from the diet of those who are not. Likewise, a vegetarian diet is not a “variation” of a non-vegetarian diet.
Also, why are you talking about 1900?
I think the fact that humans can’t agree on even the most basic issues is pretty solid evidence. Also, even if everyone had the same subjective ethics, this still would result in objective contradictions. I’m not aware of any evidence that this problem is solvable at all.