
Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions [video] - ntoshev
http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right.html
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_delirium
Hmm, I've got to say I'm not really convinced. It seems like what he's
actually talking about is science answering _factual_ questions, which can
only be interpreted as answering moral questions if you've already arrived at
some assumptions about morality via non-scientific, philosophical means. In
particular, there is not a single thing he says in this talk that is genuinely
a scientific answer to a genuinely moral question, unless you supplement the
science with additional non-scientifically-validated axioms, which tell you
why a particular empirical fact about the world, which is just a fact, should
be interpreted using terms like "morality".

Science can, as he points out, constrain the possible philosophical positions
one could consistently take, by providing facts that moral philosophies can't
be inconsistent with (e.g. some kinds of utilitarianism might be ruled out, if
they assume humans work in a way that, empirically, they don't). But that's
somewhat different, and has been something people have discussed for a while
(empirically studying morality was one of the things Nietzsche got famous
for).

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ntoshev
Wellbeing of conscious creatures sounds like a good fitness function to
optimize for, but clearly many people disagree, most religions for example
optimize for the afterlife.

