In Other Words

Ethics: Meta Ethics

This entry continues on from a number of previous entries, the last of which can be found here. This entry will probably not make a great deal of sense without considering those entries first. You have been warned.

I had a chance to discuss my meta-ethical model as it exists right now and to get some basic reactions to it. The person I spoke to made the assumption that I’m advocating that people should abandon their current ethical model and replace it with an easier life style, one where they would not, for instance, have to pray five times, avoid beef or consider the sound of one hand clapping.

The apparently believed I was suggesting an alternative way for people to live their lives. I can understand why people would think that, but I would like to point out at this point that that is not what I’m doing. I am not suggesting that people should abandon their current ethical model (or religion, or anything like that). What I’ve outlined in the previous entries does not operate at that level, but rather tries to examine the system that governs why certain ethical models are held by a huge number of people, even while other ethical models have almost completely died out.

Trying to use my theory to explain how people should behave is a bit like trying to use linguistic theory to understand Japanese. Linguistic theory might explain why the Japanese language works the way it works, but it won’t make it possible for you to understand it.

Darwinian Ethics does not propose that any ethical model is wrong. It does quite the opposite. It says that every ethical model has at least some of the answers, that’s why they still exist. Only those ethical models that don’t exist anymore can be said to have been ‘wrong’ (and then only from our current perspective in time).

So what is the purpose of Darwinian Ethics? Well, if Darwinian Ethics is right (And that’s a mighty big if) then it might help us understand what we’re doing better, as well as why. We can observe the actions we undertake and possibly help accelerate ethical evolution through conscious effort. I see it much like how we first learn how the world works around us and then use that knowledge to make better use of the world.

All the ethical models that exist right now, and especially the dominant ones, are in that position for a reason. They have certain ideas and concepts that are helping those that hold those ethical models to thrive. Those ethical models are spreading because they are appealing to the people that encounter them. They should not be abandoned, but instead by examined carefully, so that we might find what makes them capable of out competing other, older models.

So, I reiterate (just to be certain that it is understood) I am not advising people to change their life style, I am only suggesting a theory that might explain why they live the way they live and why the believe what they believe. Everything is in this world for a reason, be it tree, rock or belief. I am just trying to explain why some of those beliefs might be there.

posted by Symbol @ 20.11.05