tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7164603649660539619.post6476494150806906895..comments2023-12-15T03:43:21.347-05:00Comments on Somewhat Abnormal: Boo on You! Non-Cognitivism and the Moral InstinctRobert Oerterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09708981993708509662noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7164603649660539619.post-1049845100507784492011-05-11T12:30:58.384-04:002011-05-11T12:30:58.384-04:00Yeah, that's what I was getting at in the last...Yeah, that's what I was getting at in the last sentence. What I meant by "harder to understand" was that it's harder to understand from a purely evolutionary point of view. If morality is an instinct, why need there be any cognitive content at all? <br /><br />I think the answer lies in the fact that we are thinking creatures, so we naturally make rules for everything we do. We don't learn grammar by the rules, but we notice that it (more or less) follows rules, and then abstract the rules, and decide that we ought to follow the rules even when it contradicts our actual practice. <br /><br />I suspect something similar happens with morality.Robert Oerterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09708981993708509662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7164603649660539619.post-84681622916935787782011-05-10T15:49:00.838-04:002011-05-10T15:49:00.838-04:00.."It's harder to understand why there mi....."It's harder to understand why there might be a cognitive component to morality."<br /><br />Not so hard if we let the expressivism operate on more abstract ends (i.e. moral goals). Then there would be room for specic moral judgments to have cognitive content about how well the specifics live up to the general goals.<br /><br />To use Harris as an example, selecting 'the well-being of conscious creatures' as the goal we expect everyone to promote could be taken as purely non-cognitive step. But once taken, there are plenty of cognitivist things to say about whether this or that helps the goal along.Garrenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10812718496568711240noreply@blogger.com