Define your terms, then you get a fair hearing. If you are just saying the terms could maybe someday be defined, this really isn’t the kind of thing that needs a response.
To put it in perspective, you are speculating that someday you will be able to define what the field you are talking about even is. And your best defense is that some people have made questionable arguments against this non-theory? Why should anyone care?
used in auxiliary function to express obligation, propriety, or expediency
As for obligation—I doubt you are under any obligation other than to avoid the usual uncontroversially nasty behavior, along with any specific obligations you may have to specific people you know. You would know what those are much better than I would. I don’t really see how an ordinary person could be all that puzzled about what his obligations are.
As for propriety—over and above your obligation to avoid uncontroversially nasty behavior, I doubt you have much trouble discovering what’s socially acceptable (stuff like, not farting in an elevator), and anyway, it’s not the end of the world if you offend somebody. Again, I don’t really see how an ordinary person is going to have a problem.
As for expediency—I doubt you intended the question that way.
If this doesn’t answer your question in full you probably need to explain the question. The utilitarians have this strange notion that morality is about maximizing global utility, so of course, morality in the way that they conceive it is a kind of life-encompassing total program of action, since every choice you make could either increase or decrease total utility. Maybe that’s what you want answered, i.e., what’s the best possible thing you could be doing.
But the “should” of obligation is not like this. We have certain obligations but these are fairly limited, and don’t provide us with a life-encompassing program of action. And the “should” of propriety is not like this either. People just don’t pay you any attention as long as you don’t get in their face too much, so again, the direction you get from this quarter is limited.
As for obligation—I doubt you are under any obligation other than to avoid the usual >uncontroversially nasty behavior, along with any specific obligations you may have to >specific people you know. You would know what those are much better than I would. I >don’t really see how an ordinary person could be all that puzzled about what his >obligations are.
You have collapsed several meanings of obligation together there. You may have explicit legal obligations to the state, and IOU style obligations to individuals who have done you a favour, and so on. But moralobligations go beyond all those, If you are living a brutal dictatorship, there are conceivable circumstances where you morally should not obey the law. Etc, etc.
If the people arguing that morality is just preference answer: “Do what you prefer”, my next question is “What should I prefer?”
In order to accomplish what?
Should you prefer chocolate ice cream or vanilla? As far as ice cream flavors go, “What should I prefer” seems meaningless...unless you are looking for an answer like, “It’s better to cultivate a preference for vanilla because it is slightly healthier” (you will thereby achieve better health than if you let yourself keep on preferring chocolate).
This gets into the time structure of experience. In other words, I would be interpreting your, “What should I prefer?” as, “What things should I learn to like (in order to get more enjoyment out of life)?” To bring it to a more traditionally moral issue, “Should I learn to like a vegetarian diet (in order to feel less guilt about killing animals)?”
Is that more or less the kind of question you want to answer?
This might have clarified for me what this dispute is about. At least I have a hypothesis, tell me if I’m on the wrong track.
Antirealists aren’t arguing that you should go on a hedonic rampage—we are allowed to keep on consulting our consciences to determined the answer to “what should I prefer.” In a community of decent and mentally healthy people we should flourish. But the main upshot of the antirealist position is that you cannot convince people with radically different backgrounds that their preferences are immoral and should be changed, even in principle.
At least, antirealism gives some support to this cynical point of view, and it’s this point of view that you are most interested in attacking. Am I right?
The other problem is that anti-realists don’t actually answer the question “what should I do?”, they merely pass the buck to the part of my brain responsible for my preferences but don’t give it any guidance on how to answer that question.
Define your terms, then you get a fair hearing. If you are just saying the terms could maybe someday be defined, this really isn’t the kind of thing that needs a response.
To put it in perspective, you are speculating that someday you will be able to define what the field you are talking about even is. And your best defense is that some people have made questionable arguments against this non-theory? Why should anyone care?
After thinking about it a little I think I can phrase it this way.
I want to answer the question: “What should I do?”
It’s kind of a pressing question since I need to do something (doing nothing counts as a choice and usually not a very good one).
If the people arguing that morality is just preference answer: “Do what you prefer”, my next question is “What should I prefer?”
Three definitions of “should”:
As for obligation—I doubt you are under any obligation other than to avoid the usual uncontroversially nasty behavior, along with any specific obligations you may have to specific people you know. You would know what those are much better than I would. I don’t really see how an ordinary person could be all that puzzled about what his obligations are.
As for propriety—over and above your obligation to avoid uncontroversially nasty behavior, I doubt you have much trouble discovering what’s socially acceptable (stuff like, not farting in an elevator), and anyway, it’s not the end of the world if you offend somebody. Again, I don’t really see how an ordinary person is going to have a problem.
As for expediency—I doubt you intended the question that way.
If this doesn’t answer your question in full you probably need to explain the question. The utilitarians have this strange notion that morality is about maximizing global utility, so of course, morality in the way that they conceive it is a kind of life-encompassing total program of action, since every choice you make could either increase or decrease total utility. Maybe that’s what you want answered, i.e., what’s the best possible thing you could be doing.
But the “should” of obligation is not like this. We have certain obligations but these are fairly limited, and don’t provide us with a life-encompassing program of action. And the “should” of propriety is not like this either. People just don’t pay you any attention as long as you don’t get in their face too much, so again, the direction you get from this quarter is limited.
You have collapsed several meanings of obligation together there. You may have explicit legal obligations to the state, and IOU style obligations to individuals who have done you a favour, and so on. But moralobligations go beyond all those, If you are living a brutal dictatorship, there are conceivable circumstances where you morally should not obey the law. Etc, etc.
In order to accomplish what?
Should you prefer chocolate ice cream or vanilla? As far as ice cream flavors go, “What should I prefer” seems meaningless...unless you are looking for an answer like, “It’s better to cultivate a preference for vanilla because it is slightly healthier” (you will thereby achieve better health than if you let yourself keep on preferring chocolate).
This gets into the time structure of experience. In other words, I would be interpreting your, “What should I prefer?” as, “What things should I learn to like (in order to get more enjoyment out of life)?” To bring it to a more traditionally moral issue, “Should I learn to like a vegetarian diet (in order to feel less guilt about killing animals)?”
Is that more or less the kind of question you want to answer?
Including the word ‘just’ misses the point. Being about preference in now way makes it less important.
This might have clarified for me what this dispute is about. At least I have a hypothesis, tell me if I’m on the wrong track.
Antirealists aren’t arguing that you should go on a hedonic rampage—we are allowed to keep on consulting our consciences to determined the answer to “what should I prefer.” In a community of decent and mentally healthy people we should flourish. But the main upshot of the antirealist position is that you cannot convince people with radically different backgrounds that their preferences are immoral and should be changed, even in principle.
At least, antirealism gives some support to this cynical point of view, and it’s this point of view that you are most interested in attacking. Am I right?
That’s a large part of it.
The other problem is that anti-realists don’t actually answer the question “what should I do?”, they merely pass the buck to the part of my brain responsible for my preferences but don’t give it any guidance on how to answer that question.