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I think that "opinion" might not be the best word for moral judgments, but I think that moral judgments are subjective--they only arise in persons' brains, there is no other source of them.
Believing that some conduct is "kosher" and other conduct isn't seems to be a fundamental way that human brains function (and I agree with the view that the most widespread, core ethical beliefs there are what they are because of evolutionarily selection/survival advantage).
You do realize that when you believe that their are absolutes, even that is an arbitrary choice made by you.
No, I think that's facile thinking on your part. For you cannot argue an instance where it could ever be perfectly moral for me to walk into a 7/11, shoot the clerk, and take a six-pack of Budweiser without paying for it.
After all, the entire concept of morality is centered around a code of conduct for the continuance of the species.
To a certain degree I think morality is more subjective, in a universal sense. However, I also think morality has an objective facet to it as well. There are things that are inherently immoral- rape, incest, murder, child pornography… things that are an affront to all of society with the exceptions of such a small minority that it can easily be called objective.
I use subjective/objective as ontological terms. In other words, those terms, in my usage (which isn't at all inconsistent with the conventional usage of those terms in philosophy) are about where something occurs. If it occurs in the consciousness of sentient beings only, it's subjective. So it doesn't matter if everyone on something--if that thing (like an ethical judgment) only occurs in consciousness and can't be found in the world outside of consciousness, then it's subjective.
The significance of it being subjective is that unlike many other things (like whether a particular kind of plant has leaves with serrated edges, say), when there are disagreements, there is nothing in the non-mental world that we can look at to see who is actually correct. There are only different beliefs.
The problem with moral relativism is that you can't complain when someone else has different morals than you do.
Sure you can--you just can't claim that they're "objectively wrong" (meaning that they've got something incorrect in matching some objective state of affairs).
There's morality that has to do with how you treat the world around you. Murder, theft, sexual abuse, lying, etc., are all moral absolutes for these actions cause significant harm to others.
Then there's morality that is really nothing more than a reflection of a given culture's mores. Drug and alcohol use, sexual conduct among consenting adults, or the eating of proscribed foods.
In the case of the latter example, morals would indeed be an opinion. Remember, 100 years ago, there were a significant number of people who thought it immoral to have a Sunday newspaper.
Well, in the interest of playing devils advocate, I disagree with your moral perspective of "do not harm others."
If I measure morality based on an evolutionary perspective, then murder is acceptable because it eliminates genetic competition, theft provides additional resources for ensuring my children reach breeding age, and rape provides more opportunity to breed.
Well, in the interest of playing devils advocate, I disagree with your moral perspective of "do not harm others."
If I measure morality based on an evolutionary perspective, then murder is acceptable because it eliminates genetic competition, theft provides additional resources for ensuring my children reach breeding age, and rape provides more opportunity to breed.
The way it would happen is that communities of organisms that have brains that tend to think it's fine (or even recommendable) to murder similar organisms at any whim, especially if it takes those organisms some time to be able to procreate and produce more organisms, are not likely to have enough members around long enough to perpetuate that species. It's not that none of the organisms can think that it's okay to kill similar organisms on a whim, but if that were the norm, that species wouldn't last long. Also, it's not that the species can't think that it's okay to kill similar organisms under particular conditions--as long as the conditions amount to there being enough of that organism around at the right times to perpetuate the species, those beliefs will not be selected against (and indeed, many humans think that it's okay to kill other humans under particular conditions).
The way it would happen is that communities of organisms that have brains that tend to think it's fine (or even recommendable) to murder similar organisms at any whim, especially if it takes those organisms some time to be able to procreate and produce more organisms, are not likely to have enough members around long enough to perpetuate that species. It's not that none of the organisms can think that it's okay to kill similar organisms on a whim, but if that were the norm, that species wouldn't last long. Also, it's not that the species can't think that it's okay to kill similar organisms under particular conditions--as long as the conditions amount to there being enough of that organism around at the right times to perpetuate the species, those beliefs will not be selected against (and indeed, many humans think that it's okay to kill other humans under particular conditions).
I think that some are just trying to point out that there are no moral absolutes. To think so is to fail to realize that that belief requires a limited perspective. Any moral absolute requires a finite perspective.
I could argue that the extermination of the human race would be moral on such a belief that humans were a parasitic species.
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