this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Morality is absolutely a construct, but that doesn't mean people don't have moral obligations.
I believe the average person's moral obligation is first and foremost to themselves and their happiness, but that doesn't mean there isn't a line when dealing with other people. It's a 'know it when you see it' kinda line too, i wouldn't fault someone for taking a few hundred grand from Taylor Swift or Elon Musk for instance even though that would very nebulously harm both of them, or for scamming a tourist out of their entertainment budget. But robbing a homeless guy's tent is going to far.
I wouldn't fault someone for making someone else's life a living hell if they deserve it, either, or even killing someone. But that's all very difficult to draw a line in too.
I would want to tease a little more out here - why is it constructed, who constructed it, and does morality in general have merits? (If so, what would you say those are?)
It's constructed because we can't find it just lying around out in the world, it's something humans had to come up with. Preferably everyone constructs their own. Yes morality has benefits, the broadest being social control (although that could be argued to be a bad thing), more individually morals could help people make choices in difficult situations.
I think you might find "evolutionary ethics" to be interesting - it's probably the biggest new theory in ethics in the last few hundred years. Really interesting stuff.
Not deeply studied but some very early pre-linguistic studies showing babies only a few months old essentially having something resembling a concept of fairness/justice/trust. The idea is essentially that much like language most people have at least some very general moral predispositions. Really fascinating stuff.