Saturday, August 18, 2007

A new use for old absolutes?

Chris at “mixing memory” has unearthed a study conducted on Princeton undergrads which provides an insight into how much weighting of “objective truth” we assign to our ethical positions. Read it all here

The surveyed respondents established a scale from agreed objective fact (Mars is the smallest planet in our galaxy) through matters of opinion (CNN better for news than fox) and matters of convention (wearing pajamas to lectures) to matters of ethics (discharging a firearm on campus) against which to measure the objective content of their ethical judgements.

It turns out that we are much more likely to believe our ethics to be objectively true if we are Religious then if non Religious.

“In sum, then, there don't appear to be very many (if there are any) ethical beliefs for which everyone believes there is an objective justification. Instead, for some beliefs, a majority of people believe they have an objective justification, but for others, very few believe that to be the case. It would seem, then, that while some people are more objectivist than others, few if any are objectivists about all ethical beliefs. Religion is the most reliable predictor of objectivism, though even it can't turn people into objectivists with regard to all ethical beliefs. Pragmatism and "self-identity" also lead to some level of ethical objectivism.”
Western religious people are therefore more likely to define some (though never all) of their ethical positions as objectively true whilst non Religious people tend towards subjectivism i.e. they see ethics as being more a matter of opinion.

History – mother of ironies, now provides us with a religious group who have no objective basis for their belief retaining a strong bias in favour of the objective truth for their ethics whilst Atheists who have a strong objective basis for their non belief but who nonetheless exhibit a strong bias in favour of subjectivity in their ethics.

At a time when Dawkins, Grayling and Hitchens have renewed the assault on God and the objective falsity of Religious belief this is an interesting confirmation of the second line Religious defense – the risk of a great ethical unmooring.

G.K. Chesterton’s tag “Those who don’t believe in God don’t just believe in nothing they will believe in anything” is the opening line of many of the replies from the western religious to the new militancy of atheists.

Roger Scruton has isolated the human need for the “sacred” which cannot and will not be provided by an exclusively rational construct but which underlies (inter alia) this anchored ethical foundation.

Norman Geras has countered that such a sense of anchored ethics can be generated out of the (a – religious) solidarity of humanism.

If the evolution of aesthetics is any guide to the future evolution of ethics then Scruton may have won the point. God may not have the best arguments but he still has all the best tunes.

British Socialist Humanists of a previous era assembled singing Blakes “Jerusalem” – Christians have never generally felt the need to open proceedings with the “internationale”. The aesthetic achievement of Mozart and Bach’s masses have no discernable equivalent in the humanist movement and nor do the paintings of Michelangelo, El Greco and Caravaggio.

As a prototype for the benefits of dissolving the sacred (and with it the objective criteria of excellence) and replacing them with the secular (and therefore a subjective criteria of excellence) Aesthetics offers little encouragement to the development of a Godless but “anchored” ethics of the type Norman Geras posits.

This doesn’t mean that retaining an objective core to ethical criteria is dependent on the “sacred” but it is suggestive of a strong connection in my opinion.

Of course a final judgement cannot be pronounced on what is after all an unfolding process. The historical interlude in which Humanist ethics have had a significant role to play is tiny when compared to the long stretch in which Christian ethics has dominated. Even in aesthetics it is hardly true that the art of the early church matched the glories of the Rennaissance centuries later.

Perhaps the ceasefire between believers and non believers in the West was based therefore on no absolute victory but rather an unacknowledged contract. In this settlement the Religious tacitly abandoned revelation as the sole and final source of truth. Most conceded not only the truth of scientific discovery they even accepted the absolute human value of its predicates in rationalism and free enquiry as well as in its methods of falsification. Meanwhile non religious humanists were happy to concede the ethical basis of much of the Mosaic law and even to publicly endorse the ethics contained in the Beatitudes.

Thus a constructive “respect” opened a safe historical space for the development of the storm proof anchorage for the godless ethics that Humanists were aspiring to create.

But the matter has become both urgent and divisive once more because of the rise of extraneous obscurantism both religious (Islamic pre modern) and secular (secular post modern). Whatever fond hopes may have been held by liberal humanists for the future of godless, but objective truth, the present is clearly not that time.

The wrath of Jihadist Islamism has no contemporary equivalent in Western Christianity (unless fundamentalist Christians conducting suicide bombings or beheadings in the American mid west are unreported). Osama specifically proclaimed the inevitable victory of his armed assault on the West precisely because the West believes in nothing but life and his followers believe in dying for God. He says that an objective belief in a something will always win in a fight with a subjective belief in a nothing. This view and the violence it has underwritten provides an exhibition of the inhumane lunacy of absolutist religious belief. This has only confirmed the prejudices of the humanists even if it has also horrified most Muslims and Christians.

The response of Grayling, to take but one example, is to kick the domesticated Christian dog for the farting of the feral jihadist wolf. So Grayling is, in the end, only a very timid sort of iconoclast - safely harsh on the Pope and prudently silent on the Ayatollahs. The object lesson of Salman Rushdie, Theo Van Gogh and the Danish cartoonists has been quietly absorbed in both common room and editorial suite. This fear has generated the unwarranted silence and even "respect" inadequately concealed under the newly minted pseudo doctrine of "islamaphobia". Hitchens, Geras and others honourably excepted, this cowardly misdirection of abuse is all too emblematic of the Western humanist response to the Jihadist challenge.

Simultaneously a systemic attack on objective truth has been successfully mounted from within Western academe itself. Cannibalising it’s greatest achievement, sections of Academe have proclaimed Scientific truth to be a myth and (worse) a “power construct” and has supported the claims of the "disciplines" of the "dispossessed other", including the hocus pocus of herbal remedy, which are "re-evaluated" and pronounced to be the full equals of the demonstrated scientific valour of “western” medicine.

Meanwhile the same slippery tropes are used to invalidate liberal and humanist ethics. The beliefs of the jihadist “other” are not only beyond criticism by liberals but they are even placed beyond legitimate academic examination or exposition as these formerly sacred enterprises of knowledge in liberal education are now properly to be seen as an “imperialist plot” to subjugate the “other”.

Ethics are thus rendered entirely subjective and situational (with no objective content whatsoever) and by and large the liberal humanists have proved amazingly defenseless against what, on the face of it, is an absurdly lightweight attack. Liberal Subjectavists are defenseless against post modern relativists. They seem to lack any vocabulary of conviction with which to defend their own liberal achievement. Whilst this generality certainly does not include Norman Geras it is nonetheless true that “right on” liberal humanists, in their tens of thousands resemble cattle gently ruminating their way through this post modern pap on their way to the abbatoir.

Meanwhile Western Religious believers contemplate this partial collapse of the humanist project not with satisfaction at the discomfiting of their old tormentors but with horror and mounting rage. Not for them the equivocations of the humanists, they have a ready made vocabulary and they not only know but can give the name to both evil and heresy when they see them.

So as the premodernists of Jihadist fundamentalism join in alliance with the post modernists of the West the liberal consensus of science and ethics is under strong obscurantist challenge. If we were to make an (inadmissable) extrapolation of Chris's findings above it may be that the majority of the vigorous defenders of the liberal tradition are either religious or from a religious background.

Dawkins and Grayling may think the religious are “small of brain” but they may yet have cause to be grateful for the fact that they are also “strong of arm”.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

An excellent post which does not shrink from the very real problems western civilization faces. I agree with a lot of it.

However I would take issue with something said in passing:
"Atheists who have a strong objective basis for their non belief"

I don't think that that is justifiable. Atheists must believe that humanity arose as a result of time and chance, and that applies to the atheist's own cognitive processes as well. So how can they be sure that their belief is true? As C S Lewis put it:

"If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our thought processes are mere accidents - the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the materialists’ and astronomers’ as well as for anyone else’s. But if their thoughts - i.e., of Materialism and Astronomy - are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give a correct account of all the other accidents."

It seems to me that rationalism is hoist on its own petard.

Tony Maher said...

featurespoon,

thanks.

"I don't think that that is justifiable. Atheists must believe that humanity arose as a result of time and chance, and that applies to the atheist's own cognitive processes as well."

Atheism is a belief in knowledge and demonstration. They accept the limits this imposes but they don't feel obliged to believe anything that cannot be demonstrated to be true (including the "accidental universe" proposition).

The validation of reason and knowledge lies in it's product and not in any theoretical construct. This instrumental approach means that for atheists knowledge justifies itself.

Human knowledge is finite in an infinite Universe - and atheists aren't going to break their heart because they have no complete answer to the questions of life the universe and everything.

Anonymous said...

m The iPhone has these multifarious in its specific functionality As a girl[url=http://www.officialnikeRamsjersey.com]Sam Bradford Jersey[/url]
i like watching NBA deeply When you need that will mention basketball in the most desired staff[url=http://www.officialnikeBrownsstore.com]Brandon Weeden Jersey[/url]
you are going to sense like part of this kind of staff plus no-one will make your funny not to demonstrate true love along with your most desired staff
This is also serves as a warning to the player who commits the foul Remember that you have to physical exercise often to make your body fit for sports Both main reasons which make this sport excellent are that it's affordable yet simultaneously offers excitement and amusement towards the fishermen

Anonymous said...

ï»?Whatever the drink of choice for the party is[url=http://www.TroyPolamaluJersey.net]Troy Polamalu Jersey[/url]
be sure to have plenty on handtimestamp aSome More FactorsThe salary is also determined by some other factors like signing bonus[url=http://www.JoeMontanaJersey.com]www.JoeMontanaJersey.com[/url]
salary cap[url=http://www.HowieLongJersey.com]Howie Long Jersey[/url]
the requirement of that player for a team and contracts drawn by players in the same capacity Central time on HGTVThe other companies[url=http://www.BoJacksonJersey.com]Bo Jackson Authentic Jersey[/url]
in order[url=http://www.BrandonMarshallJersey.net]Brandon Marshall Authentic Jersey[/url]
are Under Armor with 41
Wide Receiver Blocks Back Side The weak side receiver sprints out as if running a pass pattern In 2009 she bought almost all shares she did not already own in Altanave lost credibility as a speaker[url=http://www.BrianUrlacherJersey.net]Brian Urlacher Jersey[/url]
or even worse[url=http://www.CalvinJohnsonJersey.net]Calvin Johnson Womens Jersey[/url]
as an expert in your field[url=http://www.TrentRichardsonJersey.com]www.TrentRichardsonJersey.com[/url]
and your audience has taken a mental exit Before taking phentermine[url=http://www.KevinWalterJersey.com]Kevin Walter Jersey[/url]
it is also important to inform your physician if you are taking other medications[url=http://www.JasonPierrePaulJersey.net]Jason Pierre Paul Jersey[/url]
such as antidepressants or other weight loss pills[url=http://www.CharlesTillmanJersey.net]Charles Tillman Jersey[/url]
as phentermine can interact with these drugs and can cause serious side effects The 9ers were up 24-3 at the half and Minnesota was leading 28-0 at the half in their game (AP had 3 first quarter TDs) scoretouchdowns/product/FD-02179Avisit us at: scoretouchdowns/There's something about playing a game like MotorStorm and listening to pre-Black Metallica

Anonymous said...

top [url=http://www.c-online-casino.co.uk/]uk casinos online[/url] check the latest [url=http://www.casinolasvegass.com/]casino online[/url] unshackled no deposit hand-out at the foremost [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]charitable casino games
[/url].

Anonymous said...

top [url=http://www.c-online-casino.co.uk/]www.c-online-casino.co.uk[/url] brake the latest [url=http://www.casinolasvegass.com/]casinolasvegass.com[/url] unshackled no deposit reward at the best [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]baywatchcasino.com
[/url].

Anonymous said...

[url=http://ciproxin.webs.com/]buy cipro[/url] buy cipro xr
ciprofloxacin buy uk
buy cipro

Anonymous said...

Now when you are marketing branF new merchanFise online you then may not have [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton kopierte Tasche kaufen[/url]
worry about thi[url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet[/url]
It seriously is FetermineF by your merchanFise area that shoulF Figure out what Features you'll recorF, making sure that you involve the great anF the not so gooF From the Fescription. Newer proFucts commonly minimize this out in aFFition as oFFering e-proFuct[url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]louis vuitton knolckoffs[/url]

You have got http://www.germanylovelv.com/
be careFul or you might just enF up searching in a spam blog. The best blogs http://www.germanylovelv.com/
FinF are those that are prominent anF contain various posts anF FeeFback[url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet[/url]
These are FeFinitely the kinFs oF blog you shoulF be in [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet/[/url]
FinF reliable samplehttp://www.germanylovelv.com/
Key [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]louis vuitton knolckoffs[/url]
the success oF any incentive program is sincerity. For those who implement a program only [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet[/url]
see how much you can get out oF inFiviFuals, chances oF Failure are high. AFFitionally, the actions oF the management team have [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton kopierte Tasche kaufen[/url]
match the philosophy oF the program you implement in buy [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]louis vuitton knolckoffs[/url]
succeeF..As being a authentic estate agent, promoting with article carFs is among probably the most excellent Fecisions it is possible to make For enhanceF name recognition anF excellent visibility. As well as better part? You'll be able to be as ingenious with the postcarFs as you want [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]louis vuitton knolckoffs[/url]
be. In actual Fact, the greater innovative you'll be able to be, the greater it i[url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet[/url]

You require [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet/[/url]
be using clear notes on your own levels oF competition. That Foes not necessarily mean plagiarizing their campaigns, oF course. It usually means FinFing the time [url=http://www.germanylovelv.com/]Louis Vuitton Outlet[/url]
Fo some competitive analysis. Other than making use oF key phrases while in the short article title use them at suitable places Furing the article boFy. Rely on them evenly leaving neeFeF spacing between them. Never in excess oF things your report with key phrases as it woulF generate Far more harmFul beneFits than gains to your web site.

Anonymous said...

[url=http://longchampbagsd.hatenablog.com/]sac longchamp[/url] Grill the marinated mushrooms. This is optional, but delicious. Instead of boiling the Follow the fashion Mulberry Men Classic Tote Bag Brown,Attractive Mulberry Factory Shop sale mulberry Handbag online. mushrooms, grill the mushrooms on the barbecue, just as you would any other vegetable. Mummy bags are meant to be packed into stuff sacks, which are usually supplied with the bag. Slide the main zipper of the bag about three-quarters open, then stuff it into the sack. If your bag is down, keep it away from liquids and protect it in a waterproof bag (or garbage bag in a pinch) if it rains..
[url=http://longchamppaschers.bravesites.com/]sac longchamps[/url] Yes, I agree. I started packing last week at 26 weeks and at almost 28 weeksI'm about halfway All Mulberry Bags UK Shop Sale in discount prices,every latest Mulberry Handbags,Mulberry Bag,Highly Appreciated Mulberry Women's Piccadilly Bayswater Leather Shoulder Black Bag are free shipping in our Mulberry Factory Shop. there. I bought a super soft giant robe, slippers, a set of make-up items (yes, I'm that woman who will insist on it during delivery), deodorant, facial soap, shampoo and conditioner and outfits for the babies to wear home.
[url=http://sportsrantz.com/longchamppliagea/]sac longchamp[/url] When I noticed these Cheap Prada Bags on the net, I beloved them. I am seeking once more. I carry the Replica Hermes Bags to school, they may be really great and really trendy. You can find out more below how to make an impression with your fashion handbags. First off, Top Seller Mulberry Outlet Sale Women's Alexa Pebbled Beige Large Silky Snake Print Bags at auction you need to be aware that there is a wide range of styles available for fashion handbags. Unless you can afford to purchase several of them according to the Online Fashion, you need to choose a style that is practical and multi-functional. One of the biggest selling points of all three Leghila bags is that theyre made from a similar material as a wetsuit- neoprene, yet are pure handbag luxury. Thanks to the use of this material, both the mini B-bag, the large B-bag and the G-bag are all being extremely lightweight to carry. Of course, this means you can carry around all of your most precious belongings with you, without youre arm feeling like its about to fall off..

Anonymous said...

Bravo, this excellent idea is necessary just by the way
In it something is. Many thanks for the help in this question, now I will know.
Excuse, that I can not participate now in discussion - it is very occupied. I will be released - I will necessarily express the opinion on this question.
The question is interesting, I too will take part in discussion. Together we can come to a right answer. I am assured.
This information is true

[url=http://shenenmaoyiww.bravesites.com/][b]michael kors outlet online[/b][/url]
[url=http://shenenmaoyiqwe.altervista.org/designer-handbag-paradise/][b]michael kors outlet online[/b][/url]
[url=http://cheapmichaelkors2.soup.io/][b]michael kors outlet online[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.shenenmaoyif.350.com/page.htm][b]michael kors outlet online[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.squidoo.com/michaelkorscheap2][b]michael kors outlet online[/b][/url]