1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | February 10, 2025
I suspect that one of us is mistaken. Since I'm me, I assume that you're mistaken. But that's not necessarily true, and I prefer to not maintain beliefs that are subpar or incoherent, so I believe I have something to gain from the interaction if you're willing and able to participate.
I do think that a primitive morality starts from the intrinsic human experience of pain and pleasure, which makes ethics primary. Because we are human beings with senses *long* before we intentionally think about truth and reality, *good* and *bad* happen to us and shape our thinking and behavior. My understanding is, therefore, that ethics cannot possibly be usurped by any contender: it is mathematically impossible.
There is no *but how do you know if something is good or real without epistemology and ontology?*, because the primitive experience of ethics is incarnate in the sensory experience; you might not really *think* about ethics at all, just the same as the other two in this example, but you will *act* according to the ethical structures that are created through your experiences. People act on beliefs that are neither true nor concern real (natural) things *all the time,* but those false beliefs concerning imaginary things can still define good and bad, right and wrong. Ethics is the first philosophy and the only subdomain that always obtains in human behavior.
Comment by Shield_Lyger at 14/02/2025 at 04:05 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Ethics may be first, but I think that ontology may come before it. But, either way, that's different from saying it's the deepest of philosophical concerns. Mainly because ethics tends to be important to our relationships with other people, while epistemology and ontology are still of use to the solitary.