DMB:
What if he could open his next TED talk by saying there is a rational,
humanistic, evolutionary basis on which to make claims about human
values and human flourishing? MOST intellectuals view facts and values
as separate. Most educated Americans think that nothing scientific can
be said about morals. The audience at those TED talks, for example. I
think we ought not underestimate their capacity to take ideas
seriously. On the other hand, the levels of static quality could
easily be described in ordinary terms that require no explanation. The
biological, social and intellectual levels of quality are just things
like health, wealth and truth. These basic hierarchies have already
been well established in developmental psychology.
Steve:
Good point. I think it may be possible to explain conflicts of types
of values and give clarity to moral conflict by talking about
biological vs. social values and social vs. intellectual values. This
is a tool for making sense of conflict that Harris does not currently
have which may perhaps be articulated without appeal to undefined
Quality and dynamic static first cuts and the like.
For Harris, the reason people disagree about values is because liberal
intellectuals do not think they exist and religious conservatives
think that they come from religious texts. We will come to agree about
values only when we agree that morals are about the well being of
conscious creatures capable of experiencing happiness and suffering
and when science better understands such states of consciousness and
the states of the world that give rise them.
One unsolved problem in defining well-being that seems particularly
intractable is the question of group versus individual well-being
which may be better understood in terms of the conflicting
social-intellectual and biological-social moral codes. So perhaps this
is an area where Pirsigians can offer intellectual tools.
Ron:
I think this has been one of the more relevant discussions in recent
postings, a good one to be sure.
This is the caliber of discussion that we should have more of.
thnx Steve and Dave
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