tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6793756269957487855.post3973197898022429572..comments2013-10-08T04:38:51.424-07:00Comments on Odds and Means: Scientific Determinism, Part III: Knowledge and CertaintyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07815242385058770518noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6793756269957487855.post-66653581779249395012013-09-25T16:08:32.455-07:002013-09-25T16:08:32.455-07:00I think that a distinction has to be made between ...I think that a distinction has to be made between problems which are moral or ethical in nature, from those which are scientific in nature (see my definition of what constitutes a 'scientific' question here: http://oddsandmeans.blogspot.com/2013/08/scientific-determinism-part-i-science.html )<br /><br />I'll have much more to say on ethics in the future, but I'll address it briefly here. Ethics is, at the very least, built up from our experience anthropologically as a species. Under this assumption, society as a whole dictates what is good or evil. Being the arbiter of values gives the whole of society the authority to judge men on that basis, and it is based on this premise that proper governments and systems of justice are founded. <br /><br />One might make a stronger assumption, namely, that ethics are in the domain of a higher power. In that case, we would strive to achieve what God has declared to be virtuous; in pursuit of that virtue, man would collectively establish systems of justice to punish wrongdoing in the eyes of God.<br /><br />The second assumption may very well be valid, but it makes it difficult (in my mind) to say that virtue and vice are knowable if we say that they are in the domain of a higher power. In this case, we are really in no better position than the scientist attempting to draw conclusions from noisy data. Unless we can claim the same divine knowledge as the God we would strive to please, then we are imperfect agents; but in much the same way that scientific evidence can provide us degrees of certainty (and make us very certain indeed in a given proposition), so can the social evidence of our peers provide us degrees of certainty that we are acting ethically. Odds and Meanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15824778875535451665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6793756269957487855.post-17198970626375758022013-09-25T15:30:17.500-07:002013-09-25T15:30:17.500-07:00Do you also mean that you do not believe that it i...Do you also mean that you do not believe that it is completely knowable that our own acts that we commit are good or evil in complete or in degree? Such a proposition seems unreasonable in regards to moral agents.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00492483558319742535noreply@blogger.com