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A Simple Case for Studying Morals - by Gabe

cognition.cafe · 3,197 words · saved by 1 readers

Morals is a complicated topic. So complicated that explanations for why it matters are themselves complicated. I have found that a result, many have become alienated from morals, where they can seem to care enough to study them. This leads to memes like this one: In this article, I’ll try to make a simple case for why we should study morals. More than any complex argument, I believe the easiest way to see why it is worth to study morals is its track record. We performed many moral aberrations in the past. We now understood them to be bad. This understanding is not purely psychological, it has real-world consequences. When what we identify as moral aberrations visibly happens, we publicly condemn them. When we have enough resources, we try to stop them from happening. In the past, there were people who described moral aberrations in a way that was not the norm at their time, but was prescient of our current understanding. Those people usually studied morals. Bartolomé de las Casas is an

Morals are hard. Studying them improve things for everyone, collectively and individually. Morals is a complicated topic. So complicated that explanations for why it matters are themselves complicated. I have found that as a result, many have become alienated from morals, where they cannot seem to care enough to study them. This leads to memes like this one: Obviously, the meme is wrong. It's a meme, it doesn't purport to make precise and true claims. But it does point at a dynamic. This dynamic is that many people feel like the alternative to using common sense is to logically derive…

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