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Sat 12 Dec, 2015 09:25 am
Context:
Clearly, one of the great tasks of civilization is to create cultural mechanisms that protect us from the moment-to-moment failures of our ethical intuitions. We must build our better selves into our laws, tax codes, and institutions. Knowing that we are generally incapable of valuing two children more than either child alone, we must build a structure that reflects and enforces our deeper understanding of human well-being. This is where a science of morality could be indispensable to us: the more we understand the causes and constituents of human fulfillment, and the more we know about the experiences of our fellow human beings, the more we will be able to make intelligent decisions about which social policies to adopt.
-Sam Harris
@oristarA,
Yes, it seems that way to me.
@McTag,
McTag wrote:
Yes, it seems that way to me.
Thanks.
Does "human fulfillment" there refer to "human well-being/happiness"?
@oristarA,
Yep, that's what it looks like to me.
@FBM,
FBM wrote:
Yep, that's what it looks like to me.
Thanks.
I always thought that "human fulfillment" as "human self realization." Is such understanding a mistake?
@oristarA,
Hmm. Good question. My first reaction was to say that they're different, but the more I think about it, the more similar they seem.
@FBM,
So we got richer in our vocabulary.
In the context, does "we must build a structure that reflects and enforces our deeper understanding of human well-being" mean "we must build a structure in our brain that reflects and enforces our deeper understanding of human well-being"?
Or a structure in our society (a material structure)?
@oristarA,
The latter one. A material structure or at least an organization. Maybe laws, too. You have to go back to "create cultural mechanisms" to get the reference.
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