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Originally Posted by tame_deuces
I was not really looking for some logical justification for morals, I am more curious to see how people genuinely think about morals. With "moral baseline" I was thinking of certain moral values that people think should never be crossed.
I have this notion (which might be incorrect) that most of us hold certain moral values to be external and others to be internal, regardless of what ethical theories we espouse. Perhaps I am wrong.
That isn't intended as direct criticism of various views on subjective or objective morals, but I do feel that when we frame discussions specifically towards theories of that ilk that we tend to automatically frame our morals in them. It is, I guess, more a criticism of how we tend to discuss morals.
I think there is an existential question here, about what counts as my
genuine thoughts about morality. On the one hand, I have many moral beliefs and goals to which I consciously assent. On the other, I'm a fallible human being whose actions are guided by all sorts of more or less mysterious causes, only some of which seem to be these consciously assented to moral beliefs. A Christian would say I have a sin nature that inclines me towards selfishness, short-term pleasure, and triviality, and that the purpose of a moral and spiritual life is to bring it more in line with these moral beliefs. So are the revealed preferences of my actions my actual "moral" values, or are the ones to which I consciously assent my genuine values?
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An analogy could be economics. An economic model that models human decision making as rational is compelling because it is simple and elegant, and it is indeed easy to fit our behavior into such models. Very intelligent men and women have done so for a long time. The problem arises when we start modelling irrational behavior as rational. "Joe bought the car he could not afford because he wanted higher status" sounds perfectly fine, but it obfuscates problems with the model.
Your analogy ignores a crucial distinction. Economic models are descriptive, ethical models are normative. In fact, many moral theories assume that humans generally don't have the right moral values and so take as a central task the project of
changing your moral baseline to become congruent with what is actually moral.