Quote:
Quote by: Morality Games  Psychologically, individual beings will evaluate the worth of objective features of reality on basis of how well such things work for them. These valuations become our 'values'... |
I'm not asking how we evaluate or the products of evaluations (our values)... I'm asking
why we need to evaluate something in the first place.
Here's my answer (and the essentials of my view on ethics):
A man needs an ethical code because his survival requires it. A man must act to gain/keep a value in order to survive. The highest value is one's own life and one must act to keep it, in other words, man eats food, drinks water, finds medical care, etc. because he wants to stay alive.
Man must pursue some sort of value in order to stay alive.
How does man discover what values are proper for his survival? How does man define what values further his life? The science that deals with those questions is ethics.
Since man requires a code of ethics, or a code of values to survive he evaluates a particular action with his
life as the standard of value. It is improper for a man to pursue a value that harms his life; it is only proper for a man to pursue a value that furthers his life.
Now, I also hold the view of objective morality. Why? Because I hold that
values are objective.
Values are objective because the good is an aspect of
reality in
relation to man. In other words, anything that is good for man can be validated by a fact of reality. For example:
1. Fact: In order to survive a man needs food.
2. A man evaluates this fact by using his life as the standard of value.
3. Man realizes that eating food is good.
Of course, this isn't an issue that has a morally complex issue, but that is the essential view I have on ethics.