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From: wex@ittvax.UUCP (Alan Wexelblat)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Irrational Bases
Message-ID: <931@ittvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Aug-83 14:57:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: ittvax.931
Posted: Mon Aug 15 14:57:25 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Aug-83 19:53:43 EDT
References: umcp-cs.1857
Lines: 23

Paul Torek, among others, has questioned my assertion that all morality is 
based on intuitive principles.  Well, first I should clarify that by saying
that what I meant was "All normative moral systems are ultimately based on
intuitive principles."

I would like to open the case for the defense by saying this:  what will you
base your moral system on, if not intuition?  The most common answer to that
question is "rationality."  My reply is then "Why do you consider rationality
to be an appropriate basis.  So far, all the answers I have heard are of the
form (ie boil down to) "It seems/It is obviously the right basis."

In other words, the beleif in the usefulness of rationality is itself intuitive!

Of course, I am not foolish enough to assert that there can be no other
basis, but I have yet to hear one.

Secondly, I would like to assert that no normative moral system (yet) 
captures the whole spectrum of things we intuitively think are moral, and
excludes all those things we think are non-moral.  I believe that this
is a tautology, but I cannot prove it.

--Alan Wexelblat
decvax!ittvax!wex