"how we can derive morality from science" "We can make decisions about good and evil based on the wellbeing of humans and animals. All that sort of stuff is tied into anthropology, sociology, economics etc which Science can certainly get a handle on."
I have a problem with this. You end up with the whole Star Trek "the needs of the many" crap. Yes, you can look at a given system and scientifically come up with a set of behavioural decision rules for the individual elements of that system that will maximise the health of the whole system. But what happens when you look at subsets of the system or supersets? I contend that the set of behavioural decision rules for the individual will change depending on the scope of the system you are taking into account.
And then there are the potentially counter intuitive examples such as the advances made in engineering and medicine during wartime.
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Date: 2011-04-18 11:03 am (UTC)"We can make decisions about good and evil based on the wellbeing of humans and animals. All that sort of stuff is tied into anthropology, sociology, economics etc which Science can certainly get a handle on."
I have a problem with this. You end up with the whole Star Trek "the needs of the many" crap. Yes, you can look at a given system and scientifically come up with a set of behavioural decision rules for the individual elements of that system that will maximise the health of the whole system. But what happens when you look at subsets of the system or supersets? I contend that the set of behavioural decision rules for the individual will change depending on the scope of the system you are taking into account.
And then there are the potentially counter intuitive examples such as the advances made in engineering and medicine during wartime.