Different in degree or kind: a book agrees with Adler (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, February 13, 2016, 15:22 (3206 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: The moral “sense” comes with self-awareness. You wouldn't have a moral sense if you did not have to weigh the needs of the individual against the needs of the community.
> DAVID: You are applying lots of self-awareness to animals. Doesn't work.
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> dhw: No, the self-awareness is ours! My point is that morality has its evolutionary roots in the individual organism's relation to society, but our human self-awareness leads us to consciously articulate and question codes of behaviour to a degree far beyond animal “morality”.-Exactly. You are supporting Adler.-
> dhw: I am not saying that our fellow creatures have the same “appreciation of beauty” as us, but like everything else, through our self-awareness we have developed what you call instincts (the same instincts) far beyond the scope of their origins.-Exactly. Different in kind.-> DAVID: This is the point of Denton's new book: Is functional need important or is everything built into structural types created by natural law which then evolve by the patterns set in the beginning? This is thinking that pre-dated Darwin, and Denton feels it is making a comeback. Remember I recognized patterns a long time ago. Denton is teaching me another approach to the whole problem of why things complexify if they are surviving in a truly satisfactory fashion.
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> dhw:It will be interesting to hear what he means by “patterns”. Since he is an agnostic, I can hardly believe he means a computer programme for all innovations set out by your God 3.8 billion years ago. I have suggested that his “telic law” is the drive for survival and improvement, and that this law is implemented by an in-built, autonomous, intelligent, inventive mechanism (origin unknown) within the cell/cell communities. I eagerly wait to hear his alternative.-His basic point is Darwin doesn't work at all. He is looking for a third way, not chance or design, but something that follows natural laws. Like Nagel. This is the hope of non-believers.