COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00003 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	morals[f86,jmc]		What justifies them?
C00005 00003	notes on Einstein
C00006 ENDMK
C⊗;
morals[f86,jmc]		What justifies them?

Utilitarians often justify morals by means of an implicit social
contract.  We would agree that society will function well and
people will be as well off as possible provided certain moral
and legal conventions are adhered to.  However, the ``well off
as possible'' is often interpreted hedonistically and materially.

Certainly one can justify some kind of social contract in this
way, but it will have to very strongly policed, because it will
tend to unravel as people find opportunities to cheat.  Some try
to do better by religion.  Einstein proposes a sophisticated way
of getting morals from religion in his essay ``Science and Religion'',
reprinted in his {\it Out of My Later Years}.  However, one can
do still better even without religion.  Humans have naturally
generous impulses from time to time.  Moreover, and this is a
separate human quality, humans admire generous impulses and
the actions that result from them even more consistently
than we have them.  Besides that we like to act according to
general principles and admire aesthetic sets of general principles.
We also form commitments that we are often inclined to honor
even when the reasons for undertaking them have passed.
This is sufficient to make possible sufficient moral behavior
to make civilized society possible.

	However, civilized society is somewhat delicate.  Events
can occur that cause its moral structure to break down in places.

notes on Einstein

Einstein is wishfully thinking in saying that there is no moral room for
worshipping a nation or class.  Many of the greatest human
 self-sacrifices have been on behalf of causes that benefited
only a small group --- often at the expense of larger groups.