The Torah is pretty old. Did you just mean that the influence of memes stating that “there is such a thing as ‘divine law,‘” and “behavior should be constrained by ‘divine law’” on Europe is relatively recent”?
I agree that history of ideas is super important, and I further agree that there is a strong relationship between the concept ‘divine law’ and the concept ‘deontology.’ But they are not the same, and deontology can outgrow its roots. Nor do its roots settle its value.
Fine, but even on the scale of “Since the Neolithic Revolution and the formation of continuous human cultures”, it’s still kinda recent. China, India, and Sumeria all predate the Jews, especially when you take into account that most of the actual text was written in something more like the Kings period.
China, India, and Sumeria all predate the Jews, especially when you take into account that most of the actual text was written in something more like the Kings period.
Sort of. On the other hand we have nothing from China except a some oracle bones from that period, and we haven’t yet deciphered the Indus Valley script (assuming it is a script). In fact the earliest Chinese and Indian texts we have are roughly contemporary with the Kings period.
The Torah is pretty old. Did you just mean that the influence of memes stating that “there is such a thing as ‘divine law,‘” and “behavior should be constrained by ‘divine law’” on Europe is relatively recent”?
I meant that a divine law-inspired conception of morality in a society that doesn’t actually believe in divine law, might be pretty recent.
Ok. Your post title seems pretty strong, then.
I agree that history of ideas is super important, and I further agree that there is a strong relationship between the concept ‘divine law’ and the concept ‘deontology.’ But they are not the same, and deontology can outgrow its roots. Nor do its roots settle its value.
The Torah is very recent, on an evolutionary scale.
I don’t think that’s the kind of recent the OP is talking about.
Fine, but even on the scale of “Since the Neolithic Revolution and the formation of continuous human cultures”, it’s still kinda recent. China, India, and Sumeria all predate the Jews, especially when you take into account that most of the actual text was written in something more like the Kings period.
Sort of. On the other hand we have nothing from China except a some oracle bones from that period, and we haven’t yet deciphered the Indus Valley script (assuming it is a script). In fact the earliest Chinese and Indian texts we have are roughly contemporary with the Kings period.
Not sure what you are trying to say. Are you trying to say that the OP’s point is:
“Deontology might be not even wrong, why it’s as recent as Jewish monotheism!”
I don’t think that’s what he’s saying. That would be a weird thing to say. He clarified what he meant anyways, below.