“Since facts are all there are out there, and since reason is our means of discovering and understanding facts, the question we must answer is: How can we use reason to derive moral principles—principles regarding what people ought to do—from the facts of reality—from what is? “Now, at first blush an answer might seem pretty straightforward: Pick a goal, determine what you have to do in order to accomplish it—and there’s your ‘ought.’ But not so fast. The moral question is: How does one choose a proper goal? If morality were a matter of picking and accomplishing any old goal, then a bank robber would be ‘moral’ if he successfully robbed a bank; a swindler would be ‘moral’ providing he never got caught; the Nazis, Communists, and priests of the Inquisition would have to be considered ‘moral’ because they successfully tortured and slaughtered the people whom they chose to torture and slaughter; and the terrorists of Black Tuesday [9/11] would have to be considered ‘moral’ because they succeeded in their mission. “Logically, morality cannot be a matter of doing whatever one chooses to do; it cannot be a means to achieving arbitrary goals or ends. If moral ends were arbitrary, there would be no such thing as ‘good’ and ‘evil’; there would be only ‘works’ and ‘doesn’t work.’ As in: If you want to have a lot of unearned money, robbing a bank works; robbing a parking meter doesn’t. Or: If you want to suppress rational thought on a grand scale, theocracy works; mere scolding from the pulpit doesn’t. Or: If you want to murder millions of innocent people, gas chambers, killing fields, and anthrax-loaded crop dusters work; a lone gunman doesn’t. In other words, if moral ends are arbitrary, there is no such thing as morality—’anything goes.’ “If there is such a thing as morality, it is not merely an issue of effective means; it is also—and more fundamentally—a matter of proper ends. The concept of ‘morality’ logically presupposes a proper end; without such an end, morality cannot exist. So the question is: What is a proper end? . . .” Full chapter here: https://theobjectivestandard/issues/summer-2009/is-ought-gap/ Book available from Amazon: amzn.to/18wOtKC
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 12:05:01 +0000
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