Originally posted by Starlight
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Here is my attempt at explaining objective morality as simply as I possibly can:
Whenever there are conscious beings in the universe - beings capable of experiencing reality - it makes sense to ask whether those experiences are positive or negative in nature. Whenever two conscious and intelligent beings interact, they do so with values and intentions toward each other. It makes sense to ask whether their intentions were to increase the positive experiences of the other, or to increase the negative experiences of the other, or neither. On that concept we pin the label of "morality". And that's it. The only arbitrary thing there was the choice to use the word "morality" to refer to that concept and not to some other concept. But this is always going to be a problem, because the definition of all words is intersubjective (they are defined by society) and you can never escape the subjectivity of the definition itself. But the concept the word refers to - the positive or negative intentions of conscious beings toward each other - clearly objectively exists.
Whenever there are conscious beings in the universe - beings capable of experiencing reality - it makes sense to ask whether those experiences are positive or negative in nature. Whenever two conscious and intelligent beings interact, they do so with values and intentions toward each other. It makes sense to ask whether their intentions were to increase the positive experiences of the other, or to increase the negative experiences of the other, or neither. On that concept we pin the label of "morality". And that's it. The only arbitrary thing there was the choice to use the word "morality" to refer to that concept and not to some other concept. But this is always going to be a problem, because the definition of all words is intersubjective (they are defined by society) and you can never escape the subjectivity of the definition itself. But the concept the word refers to - the positive or negative intentions of conscious beings toward each other - clearly objectively exists.
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