Huzington
August 28, 2003, 07:03 PM
From here (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61472) I am going to jump accross this dead and, and the readers may dislike that.
I am going to assert, with no evidence whatever, that what is right and what is wrong is what is true and what is false respectively. There is just as much evidence for this as there is for any morality.
Nonetheless, I believe that this morality, which I shall call the Morality of Truth, has an advantage: everyone's mind is such that he cannot suppose the Morality of Truth to be false. For everyone, without a single exception, places higher value on truth than on anything else. The very denial of this is a confirmation of the correctness of my claim because the correctness of my claim is necessarily presupposed in the denial of it. More than his children, more than his wife, does man value truth. His children are only meaningful to him insofar as he believes them to be real, insofar as he believes them to be true. Man even places truth above morality proper: Man asks, Does this moral agree with truth? (Is this moral true?) For man, truth is the highest good. He may be entirely wrong about this. But it is true that he places truth above all other things. It is the very nature of man -- in fact of belief itself -- that man wants those things in which he believes to be true. Indeed, as proven in one of my previous posts, it is impossible to believe in something without consciously or unconsciously believing it to be true. For instance: Is happiness the highest good? Man can only believe it to be the highest good if he supposes it true. And thus, unconsciously, man places truth above happiness. Is Nature the highest good? Man can only think it to be the highest good if he supposes it true; and thus again, unconsciously, man values truth more than Nature. Can God be the highest good for man? Again, the conception of truth is presupposed and has higher value; hence, once again, man unconsciously places truth above what he consciously places above all else -- his God. In fact, in practise at least, truth is man's deity. The high value of truth is always presupposed in all beliefs, in all thinking, in all discourse, in all endeavours. Nothing is more important, more sacred, to man than truth.
This is the advantage of my moral system over all other moral systems -- over utilarianism, naturalism, everything. Everyone unconsciously thinks it true insofar as he places such high value on truth.
Let us turn all moral debates into debates of truth. For simply with the supposition that "Truth is the highest good", with which everyone unconsciosly agrees, all moral questions are solved forthwith.
Imagine how true the world would be if all mankind approved of such a morality.
We will no longer have to inquire, Is X a moral act? The only question would be, Is X true?
All moral questions would be questions of objective reality. Moral questions would never be reduced to such norrow-minded and oversimplistic absurdities concerning the notions of "right" and "wrong" with no in-betweens. They would not be the object solely of the simple understanding which children and primitive peoples are wont to employ. "Right" and "Wrong", in agreement with the objective world, would not be universal, would not be immutable; they would be reasonable generalisations about the objective world.
The truth of man is his essence. His essences changes as social relations change. His essence, his human nature, is constantly changing.
I am going to assert, with no evidence whatever, that what is right and what is wrong is what is true and what is false respectively. There is just as much evidence for this as there is for any morality.
Nonetheless, I believe that this morality, which I shall call the Morality of Truth, has an advantage: everyone's mind is such that he cannot suppose the Morality of Truth to be false. For everyone, without a single exception, places higher value on truth than on anything else. The very denial of this is a confirmation of the correctness of my claim because the correctness of my claim is necessarily presupposed in the denial of it. More than his children, more than his wife, does man value truth. His children are only meaningful to him insofar as he believes them to be real, insofar as he believes them to be true. Man even places truth above morality proper: Man asks, Does this moral agree with truth? (Is this moral true?) For man, truth is the highest good. He may be entirely wrong about this. But it is true that he places truth above all other things. It is the very nature of man -- in fact of belief itself -- that man wants those things in which he believes to be true. Indeed, as proven in one of my previous posts, it is impossible to believe in something without consciously or unconsciously believing it to be true. For instance: Is happiness the highest good? Man can only believe it to be the highest good if he supposes it true. And thus, unconsciously, man places truth above happiness. Is Nature the highest good? Man can only think it to be the highest good if he supposes it true; and thus again, unconsciously, man values truth more than Nature. Can God be the highest good for man? Again, the conception of truth is presupposed and has higher value; hence, once again, man unconsciously places truth above what he consciously places above all else -- his God. In fact, in practise at least, truth is man's deity. The high value of truth is always presupposed in all beliefs, in all thinking, in all discourse, in all endeavours. Nothing is more important, more sacred, to man than truth.
This is the advantage of my moral system over all other moral systems -- over utilarianism, naturalism, everything. Everyone unconsciously thinks it true insofar as he places such high value on truth.
Let us turn all moral debates into debates of truth. For simply with the supposition that "Truth is the highest good", with which everyone unconsciosly agrees, all moral questions are solved forthwith.
Imagine how true the world would be if all mankind approved of such a morality.
We will no longer have to inquire, Is X a moral act? The only question would be, Is X true?
All moral questions would be questions of objective reality. Moral questions would never be reduced to such norrow-minded and oversimplistic absurdities concerning the notions of "right" and "wrong" with no in-betweens. They would not be the object solely of the simple understanding which children and primitive peoples are wont to employ. "Right" and "Wrong", in agreement with the objective world, would not be universal, would not be immutable; they would be reasonable generalisations about the objective world.
The truth of man is his essence. His essences changes as social relations change. His essence, his human nature, is constantly changing.