On Fri, 13 Aug 2004, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> So help me here, I don't see what exactly is wrong with -- in the end --
> thinking that our own moral views, the ones we hold -- are correct.
> Maybe I am missing something. Please tell me what it is.
>
> jks
Justin is absolutely correct when he ties moral certainty together with certainty about other forms of knowledge. Each is an example of saying "X is correct". What I frankly don't understand is Justin's unwavering confidence that he is correct, whether discussing epistemology or morality.
If we consider even just the last 1000 years of human history, there have been many people like Justin that have claimed that their beliefs are self-evident and obviously true. Today, we consider many of these beliefs wildly wrong (e.g., the moral correctness of slavery, the existence of Satanic witches). --A simple question: How many of the beliefs that people in our society today consider to be self-evident and correct will be considered wildly wrong a thousand years from now?
Call me optimistic, but the wonderful thing to me about human beings is that the social structures they create are dynamic: we adapt, we learn from the past, we try out new things, and our societies change. This will continue to happen; thus many of the beliefs we are certain about will be discarded and ridiculed in the future (e.g., I think there will be a time when people in physics assess Einstein the way that we assess Newton: an important scientist, but fundamentally wrong about important stuff.)
--And just so concerning morality: how many of the moral beliefs we are certain about will be considered barbaric and wrong in the future?
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing why this is important to me: I have faith that people can think up stuff that hasn't even occurred to me, and in many ways it may be preferable to what I know or believe. I think we should leave an opening for that: hope for the future, I guess.
Miles