Dear Friends,
It seems to me, once you have accepted there is a God, and thus morality, the next step is to determine what is the right God, and thus right morality. It is obvious that worshiping an evil god will not result in a better life, for the worshiper nor their offspring, and to bow to a false deity, is as bad or worse than the hubris of atheism. So avoiding false morality, for true morality, is of utmost importance. To do that, we need a framework in which to place the commands of the various Gods, qualify them and weigh them for their inner morality. The philosophy of Pragmatism is ideally suited for just such a task. While Pragmatism is a normative philosophy, that can be applied to a plethora of complex human systems, in rectifying morality it shines. Moreover, as humanity’s recognition of true morality grows, so does the economic, scientific, cultural, civil and social conditions in which we live under.
Even atheists claim a knowledge of morality. They will always say, “I am moral, I donate…” What they don’t understand is that they are calling on God and his supernatural principles also known as… morality. They argue such because they know, a society, culture and the crime rate are based on the aggregate morality of the people. Most people know this to be true, but what goes deeper than many people understand is that morality is the basis for all sorts of things we would never associate with it. The level of scientific achievement is based on the morality of a people, the level of economic prosperity is morality dependent, the character of a nation ie. It’s propensity to war depends on it’s moral compass, etc… Morality is a much more important question for our self interest than it is ever given.
Pragmatism is a normative philosophy since it answers the question which is good and which is bad. The means pragmatism uses to find the good or the bad is to look at outcomes. It cares nothing for intentions, means, theory or abstract, it only looks at outcomes and therefore is experimental in nature. How to use pragmatism, we look at what has happened in the past when certain moral systems were in place. Next we qualify them by their economic, human, social, cultural and scientific outcomes. If some of those outcomes were good… then that system of morality had at least some good in it, if there was starvation, human suffering, tyranny, scientific backsliding, etc… we can reliably say that system of morality was bad.
Pragmatism can be applied to all sorts of complex human systems to gauge their good or bad. Economics lends itself. If we examine the moral outcomes of the various economic systems that have been tried, we can conclude… the feudal system leads to stagnation, slavery leads to an inflexible economy and socialism leads to famine war and want, while capitalism leads to scientific advance, economic prosperity and cultural equanimity. If we exclude the outcome based philosophy, instead adopting a system that takes intentions into account, socialism becomes the better option. If we assume a system that is based on tribal ties then slavery becomes ideal. Further, if we are beholding to authority, the feudal system becomes our favorite. The moral and economic system people choose as “good,” is often based on the system used to decide, what is good and what is bad.
Once we accept that morality is fundamental to our well being as a culture, society, scientific community, economy and way of life, answering the question of what is the right morality we as a society want to live under becomes paramount. The system of morality in vogue at any given time may, or may not be true morality, nevertheless the outcome of that system can point us toward true morality by it’s outcome. Intentions, group affinity, theory, calls to authority, etc… all lead in the wrong direction. The only way to reliably gauge the good or bad of a system is outcome, (experimentally) based. We can dream of ideals all day long but in the end it is the outcome that determines if a system is good or bad. So do we want to live under a throwback system of morality that leads to stagnation, famine, war, group affinity, or is destroyed by the cancer of idealism? If you don’t make the decision for yourself, what morality you want your children to be immersed in… then let your decision be head, others will be happy to make it for you… and your children and grandchildren will have to suffer the consequences.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
