Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Philosophy or feeling good about yourself?
Socrates talked. The assumption behind his approach to philosophy, and the approaches of millions of people since, is that moral thinking is mostly a matter of reason and deliberation: Think through moral problems. Find a just principle. Apply it.
. . .
Today, many psychologists, cognitive scientists and even philosophers embrace a different view of morality. In this view, moral thinking is more like aesthetics. As we look around the world, we are constantly evaluating what we see. Seeing and evaluating are not two separate processes. They are linked and basically simultaneous.
I'm not sure that Socrates was talking about what people do, but rather what people ought to do. But hey why think when you can just feel and call it moral?
Labels: philosophy
