| In day to day matters, "Why not?" People understand moral vocabulary and it can be used to refer to strongly held preferences in behavior. Making a point of not using moral vocabulary has never seemed necessary to me -- eventually I will get into a discussion about preferences, and taking the time out of everybody's day to explain why we don't have to use moral vocabulary (when it is actually functional) would detract from my main point (diminishes my logos) and make everybody think I lack common sense (diminishes my ethos). I didn't score an 18 on Rhetoric on the ACTs to make such a basic mistake.
The vocabulary anybody uses doesn't really matter, so long as it functions. I would only stop using moral vocabulary if the popular attitude was that such a vocabulary is too archaic to be of service in discussion.
In more sophisticated matters, moral vocabulary is crucial to the study and interpretation of historical texts and anthropological data.
A moral being is an entity for whom the disadvantage of others is an issue.
– K.H.Y. |