Morals without a God

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:07:13 -0400

The biggest controversy with my philosophy often revolves around the fact that as an atheist, I can still have a moral philosophy. So frequently is the opinion voiced that moral law is dictated to us from god above. Western religion holds on to this idea and it trickles down into lifestyle and everyday culture. Islam clashes with western politics not because the values are that different but the origin of the values are critically divergent. Leaders of a society ought to be the most morally minded and therefore must receive their guidance directly from the source of morals. This is to say, there must be a close relationship between our political leaders and our divine creators. America, along with most other Christian or Jewish countries, let their laws rest on human made constitutions and philosophies while Iraq and Iran (Muslim countries) get their guidance directly from the Koran. They must view us like heathens because we form laws based not on the book but instead, upon human thoughts and deductions. How could they possibly trust us? How could they view us with any piety whatsoever if we do not deduce our morality from our religion but instead, from finely tuned convention?

Metaesthetics

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:49:13 -0400

Metaphysics (in the Aristotelian sense; not the witchcraft and new age sense) is what philosophers called that which is beyond experience. It is therefore theoretical, employing inference and deduction through rationalization as a means to explain our experience. By Metaesthetics, I mean something similar. We all possess an aesthetic sense which we experience in a very immediate way. In the field of philosophical aesthetics, philosphers pride themselves on the consideration of aesthetic qualities long after the initial perception. This sometimes grants them with a new aesthetic perspective (and the discourse continues). I am suggesting the opposite. Can there be an aesthetic judgement prior to any perception of it? In this way, there is a kind of knowledge prior to experience which is what I mean by "Meta" aesthetics. Emmanuel Kant called this a priori knowledge. Further, I am suggesting that just as there was postulated a form of "a priori" knowledge, there is also a form of a priori judgement. And what's more, this judgement is what informs our knowledge. So knowledge is not the foundation upon which experience is built (revealed to us through perception) but rather judgement is the "prime mover" in the sequence of events that make up consciousness.

Metaesthetics | Mike Vincenti

Morals without a God

Metaesthetics