Ask Lemmy

I don't believe scientific progress is analogous with human progress or can be used to "decode" morality, ie the science vs religion dichotomy I don't believe in. I don't think science or "reason" guides human societies for instance. This belief is a result of studying Hume and moral philosophy. I think science tells us what is but not what ought to be, and that gap is irreconcilable through science alone, yet it can inform our sense of right and wrong. I disagree with objective morality as well, so the popularization of this science=objective morality idea that Sam Harris has attempted I disagree with entirely. I'm much more aligned with Patricia Churchland's ideas here, and her popularization she outlines in her book "Braintrust." I don't think, as some do, that measuring brain activity decodes human morality, because I don't believe such a thing exists. I don't believe human society is controlled and determined by rational actors, I have a more Darwinian and Maxian view on that. When people profess things like "politics should be scientific" I likely agree with their sentiment but I think "science" is not the reason why, and more of a distraction/lazy way to assert being morally right about something, which science can't actually do because it requires an appeal to human notions of morality, which science cannot determine as it has no measure of which values we ought to hold.