When others offer one their moral views, one should not allow oneself to be influenced by the mere fact that they make certain claims. Listen to their arguments, think the matter through for oneself, but do not be swayed by authority. — flight747
I am unpersuaded by this moral testimony. — unenlightened
Is he offering moral advice there? — Terrapin Station
His "should not" is unconditional — unenlightened
Example — unenlightened
"You shouldn't stick a fork in an electrical socket." — Terrapin Station
To get a better idea of morality we should distinguish between conditional and unconditional “oughts.” A conditional ought takes the form of something sufficiently like “If you want to do X, you ought to do Y” and says what conditions help accomplish a particular goal without saying whether one should aim for the goal in the first place, e.g. “If you want to poison your teacher to death, you should use a sufficiently strong toxin.” An unconditional ought says what ought to be period and is the sort of ought found in “You should not poison teachers to death” and “the worst possible misery and suffering for everyone for all eternity is a state of affairs that ought not to be,” and is thus goal-independent in a way that a conditional ought is not. Moral obligations are a type of unconditional “oughtness.” An unconditional ought is not to be confused with an “ought” that doesn’t rely on any circumstances whatsoever; e.g. one could believe the unconditional ought with respect to not killing applies in some circumstances but that this obligation does not exist in certain other situations (some self-defense cases perhaps).
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