Re:“God is a Verb” by R. Buckminster Fuller (1968)
by beders on Thursday April 05, 2018 @02:19PM
(#16767504)
You can use science to verify ethical statements.
That said: The definition of 'tribe' already implies shared values (more often than not centered around a primitive version of the golden rule)
Re:“God is a Verb” by R. Buckminster Fuller (1968)
by dragonwriter on Friday April 06, 2018 @01:57AM
(#16771196)
> You can use science to verify ethical statements
No, you can't. (And not just in the sense that science falsifies rather than verifies.)
Ethical/moral statements always have a value component that is empirically unfalsifiable. They sometimes also have a falsifiable factual premise that, along with a set of value premises, supports a conclusion. Science can falsify the fact component, and sufficient failute to falsify can justify belief in the false component, but cannot falsify or (by failing to falsify) justify the value component, and therefore cannot justify the statement as a whole.
Having seen the history of tribalism fused with areligious and antireligious ideologies and empowered by applied science in the modern era, I can't see it as particularly better than the results of tribalism fused with religious ideology but without systematic science earlier in history.
Science is a powerful multiplier, but inherently value-free; the values to which it is applied necessarily come from elsewhere