Philosophy Now Forum

Arnold Zuboff keeps asking a dangerous question – whether anyone has any real reason to act morally. He thinks it has led him to a new basis for ethics.

http://philosophynow.org/issues/31/Why_ ... t_Morality

I quite like this view. The ethical choice is what we would desire if we had a perfect grasp (perfect knowledge) of our situation. But there does seem to be a leap from having a perfect grasp of the facts to having an appreciation for the desires of others. I can see that perfect knowledge is a kind of perspective from everywhere, but I am not sure I see how that necessarily entails embracing the desires of everyone. It can only convince anyone who already has an instinctive sympathy for others. After all, a pychopath might prefer to inflict pain and forgo the knowledge of having done so rather than falsely believe they had.

But isn't this incredibly close to the same problem that has been addressed by the economists, psychologists, anthropologists, and perhaps most famously, the sociobiologists?