I’m trying to explain Objectivism to my friend Sam, but he seems a bit confused on the topic of objective morality.
How would you explain to him the concept of how objective morality is defined?
What position is he starting from? Why does it confuse him? That might be a place to start formulating a response.
I’m trying to explain Objectivism to my friend Sam, but he seems a bit confused on the topic of objective morality.
I’d start with simpler things. What is “morality”? What does “objective” refer to? A lot of people think that morality refers to “acting uptight and religious” and only vaguely have the idea that it’s about some kind of principles (of course, called “rules” as in “arbitrary moral rules handed down by whoever”). If you can get the conversation going on the topic of acting on the basis of principles, then you have the main hook into asking what principles to follow and how you know what the principles are (that is, there’s a connection to actual, objective fact).