Atheism and morality (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Friday, November 05, 2010, 02:34 (5278 days ago) @ dhw

dhw,
> Interestingly, the killer punch comes right at the end of the article. The author writes: "I should add that while Foot insisted that some moral norms were grounded in human nature, she also recognized that other norms were culture-relative." Since human nature varies from one subject to another, and culture from one group to another, what chance objectivity?-Nietzsche would call her position as enumerated at the end of her article pale; her position is no different than Kant or other ethicists in the early 1800's. She's afraid that by admitting no objective or universal moralities that we cannot justify them. Foot's view is rooted in irrational fear. -Nietzsche's work for example would have us accept Athenian morals for what they were; their civilization would never have achieved its greatness. Check out the Melian dialog.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melian_dialogue-The morals that drove Athenian supremacy was the kind of morality that would allow this type of event. Nietzsche liked to point out that while European culture loved to ape all the forms of the Greeks, they forgot that the world that allowed the Greeks their greatness was exactly the kind of "Barbarism" that the modern European at the time would abhor. Though, in much irony, the Greeks viewed all others as Barbaroi; the Melian Dialog would have seen the Athenians blameless in Greek Morals of the time.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"