Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions

[sushikadanakuppe@gmail.com]

http://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawki...j9oB4zpHww

Very interesting and valid talk by Sam Harris!

[arvindiyer]

(19-Jun-2011, 11:47 AM)sushikadanakuppe@gmail.com Wrote: http://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawki...j9oB4zpHww

Very interesting and valid talk by Sam Harris!

Compelling as the case made by Harris may sound at first sight, enthusiasm for it is sort of tempered following a pointing out of its major flaws, most notably the failure to distinguish 'fact-propositions' and 'value-propositions', as explained in earlier threads here (1 and 2) and more famously in Russell Blackford's critique.

[sushikadanakuppe@gmail.com]

Thank you for the reply and also for the link to Russell Blackford's critique. I will be reading it and also I am yet to read Sam Harris's The Moral Landscape even though i have read many of his essays on this matter. After this, i might be able to comprehend this subject according to my perception and understanding; and then will get back to share my views.

(21-Jun-2011, 10:58 PM)arvindiyer Wrote:

(19-Jun-2011, 11:47 AM)sushikadanakuppe@gmail.com Wrote: http://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawki...j9oB4zpHww

Very interesting and valid talk by Sam Harris!

Compelling as the case made by Harris may sound at first sight, enthusiasm for it is sort of tempered following a pointing out of its major flaws, most notably the failure to distinguish 'fact-propositions' and 'value-propositions', as explained in earlier threads here (1 and 2) and more famously in Russell Blackford's critique.

[arvindiyer]

(21-Jun-2011, 10:58 PM)arvindiyer Wrote: Compelling as the case made by Harris may sound at first sight, enthusiasm for it is sort of tempered following a pointing out of its major flaws, most notably the failure to distinguish 'fact-propositions' and 'value-propositions', as explained in earlier threads here (1 and 2) and more famously in Russell Blackford's critique.

The latest video offering by QualiaSoup (Part 3 of the Morality Series) succinctly makes the all-important clarification that morality is neither objective (as Harris insists while saying that values can be treated as facts) nor arbitrary (as the Postmodernists whom Harris overreacts to, hold), but is intersubjective. The video also debunks Divine Command Theory and all appeals to a (potentially infallible) moral instinct as a property of humans.

The previous parts of the series (1 and 2) are also instructive and edifying. Part 4 has been promised as well.