Morality

The discussion based on http://evolvedlove.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/so-morality/ continues:

Have I misunderstood you completely? You are searching for a simple moral principle that the entire world could agree on. Do you mean explicitly agree (that’s what I first thought) or do you mean that they would agree if they could understand their own true opinions or your sound arguments or some universal reason that is not yet accessible to them?

“You have the right to do as you wish, so long as you don’t hinder the right of others to do the same.” Obviously many people don’t explicitly agree with that (I for one). Many people think that homosexuality is wrong (well, I don’t) and most people think it’s ok to force you to wear a seatbelt (I do too).

(I’m confused about what you may find confusing about my seatbelt comment. “You have the right NOT to wear a seatbelt…” Most people think you should wear a seatbelt, don’t they, and if you really don’t want to, they think the law should force you to do it anyway.)

“many people don’t believe killing in war to be murder, doesn’t mean that it ceases to be murder” You are right. Moral truths are what they are regardless of what people think. But again, I thought you were searching for a statement that people would explicitly agree on, that is a statement that people would think to be true. Are you rather looking for an objective truth? (Or what you personally think is the objective truth?) “You have the right to do as you wish, so long as…” might be an objective moral truth and I’m sure you can come up with a lot of good arguments in its favor, but how can you say that many people, most people and even the entire world would agree? They would certainly not explicitly agree (maybe because they are in denial or whatever), but are you rather saying that they would agree if they could understand your arguments? In the latter case, your moral principle is just like any other moral principle. It may be the truth, but people need to be rationally persuaded to agree. There are many belief systems in the world, and most of them run counter to the maxim “you can do as you wish, so long as…”

I thought I understood your point when I first read your post, but now I am confused. Maybe you could develop your idea in another blog entry?