Where ever someone tries to state that morality is objective or subjective, I wonder at the context by which they make their claims. Is good real? Is bad factual? Most arguments I’ve come across grasp either at secular law or the evolving morality of a religion, neither of which are defined in clear terms.
The desire for people to know what is good and what is bad is, as far as I can tell, a grasping for stability so as to avoid a failure of their philosophical framework, thus collapsing into nihilism. Both law and religion cannot offer a solid foundation for morality as both are consequences of what we know as good and evil, not the sources of how we know what good and evil are.
I frame good and bad in biology.
Using biology as the foundation of an analysis of what constitutes either good or bad, we can account for the ‘sometimes x is good and sometimes x is bad’ observation we have made of all behaviour.
For example, murder is bad according to secular law but we send troops overseas to murder people in their homelands so we can enjoy the benefits of our fossil fuel civilisation. Murder in religious texts is venerated and demanded of its followers as evidence of their true faithh. Biology provides a salient description of murder.
To exist, organisms require energy. To grow, organisms require more energy. Whatever source of energy can be monopolised excludes other organisms from that source. Survival is ensured for the organism which has energy.
Using intellectual frameworks for good and evil can only result in chaos as the effects of biological necessity are dressed up as ‘morality’.
The Enlightenment venerated reason and altruism which gradually evolved into the philosophy of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ and public taxation being used for social welfare. This greatly increased standards of living and public safety. However, the source of energy for this phenomenon, this organism, is being eroded by other organisms such as neoliberalism, spiteful ideologues, and climate change.
What is right and wrong where resources are no longer accessible? What actions will we deem ‘good’ as we strive to protect our organism, our biological selves?
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