From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Tue Aug 10 2004 - 02:22:34 BST
Hi all,
Just as all of us are born with the ability to recognize Quality, I
think we have an innate tendency to behave Morally, though both of
these abilities may, through the vicissitudes of life, be finely
tuned or utterly destroyed, resulting in the wide variety of
individuals, from saints to monsters, none of us would deny exist.
I think I'm atrracted to the MOQ because it is in itself an
expression of this Moral Intuition we all possess. I find nothing in
my study of the MOQ that is at odds with my own sense of morality.
My understanding of the MOQ, rightly or wrongly, is that Quality and
Morality are so closely related as to be indistinguishable. As we
move up through the evolutionary levels, driven by DQ, we also ascend
toward capital G Goodness, and no one need tell us what is good and
what is not good, right? The ascension is, in a way, just us coming
to recognize, and to release from within ourselves, our own profound
and innate sense of what is right and what is wrong.
Anyway, here are some thoughts on this issue of Moral Intuition,
offered by a world-famous cognitive scientist and philosopher, who
shall remain nameless:
"There is no doubt that people have moral intuitions, and
research -- serious research is in very early stages --
reveals that they are quite uniform without experience in
complex situations, and in many ways surprising. There is
little reason to doubt David Hume's observation that they
are grounded in our nature -- as we would restate it,
adding nothing much substantive, in our genetic endowment.
We can learn little bits about these topics by the methods
of science, but the issues of human life so vastly exceed
the range of scientific understanding that we are almost
always proceeding on the basis of moral intuition, which is
subject to reflection, debate, sharpening, etc., but cannot
be grounded in the way you seem to suggest. The same is
true of the epistemological intuitions that guide
scientific research, in fact. Why should we seek what by
our cognitive standards are simple, elegant theories? In
brief, we have to live our lives, without immobilizing
ourselves by posing questions that are very remote from
answers, or even coherent formulation. That's not to say
we shouldn't think about them, but without being
immobilized by them.
What I've called truisms I think are moral truisms: for
example, that we should apply to ourselves the same
standards we apply to others (in fact, more stringent
ones). Suppose I run into someone who doesn't agree: say,
someone who thinks it's outrageous for someone to cause
severe harm to us, but just fine for us to cause far more
severe harm to them? Then discussion is pretty much at an
end. However, I think this situation is very rare. The
usual situation is denial that we are causing severe harm
to them; rather, we are doing our best to help them, but
sometimes failing because of our naivete, innocence,
tendency to sacrifice ourselves too much for others, etc.
That's the essence of what in honest days used to be called
"propaganda," and is now called "news," or "information,"
or "sober commentary by public intellectuals," or
"scholarship," etc. I think that is overwhelmingly true.
One rarely comes across someone who says "I'm a Nazi and
proud of it." But if so, that reveals that there is
something of a common moral ground, and a basis for
constructive interchange -- which may, and sometimes does,
sharpen moral intuitions as well. We all know that very
well in fact. It's not that long ago, after all, that it
was considered not just tolerable but in fact deeply moral
to have slaves, beat one's wife if she is disobedient, lash
children, or torture a poor person who robbed a crumb of
bread."
Thanks to all. And, of course and as always, I welcome the thoughts
of any and all of you MOQers, even if you're not world-famous. ;-)
Best,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
-- InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983 Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com "Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything." -- Henri Poincare' MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archives: Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
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