It seems more useful to defer the problem of “what is right” temporarily and pursue instead the related problem: “what do people think is right?”. This latter question can be approached from the perspective of traditional science. One develops a descriptive moral theory that makes a prediction (e.g. “most people will judge the actions of a man who steals to feed his family to be morally acceptable”), and then you test the prediction by giving out a lot of surveys. The theories developed in this way will of course be subject to Occam’s Razor, but if a lot of data were obtained, one could justify the construction of complex models.
If a good descriptive moral theory could be found, it would be widely useful. One could then state a strong normative principle: act in such a way that the theory judges to be acceptable. This solution is not perfect, but if we hold out for perfection we will be waiting a long time.
I certainly consider other people’s stated moral beliefs, but I’m not ready to completely accept, as a normative principle, the best descriptive moral theory out there. I have a decent idea what the best descriptive moral theory out there looks like, and its not pretty.
It seems more useful to defer the problem of “what is right” temporarily and pursue instead the related problem: “what do people think is right?”. This latter question can be approached from the perspective of traditional science. One develops a descriptive moral theory that makes a prediction (e.g. “most people will judge the actions of a man who steals to feed his family to be morally acceptable”), and then you test the prediction by giving out a lot of surveys. The theories developed in this way will of course be subject to Occam’s Razor, but if a lot of data were obtained, one could justify the construction of complex models.
If a good descriptive moral theory could be found, it would be widely useful. One could then state a strong normative principle: act in such a way that the theory judges to be acceptable. This solution is not perfect, but if we hold out for perfection we will be waiting a long time.
I certainly consider other people’s stated moral beliefs, but I’m not ready to completely accept, as a normative principle, the best descriptive moral theory out there. I have a decent idea what the best descriptive moral theory out there looks like, and its not pretty.