forum for week of 28 November: pragmatism

For the latter opinion, I'd have to say that I agree. After all, what we consider to be our "firm moral principles" are but the values derived from the lessons that our parents and maybe grandparents taught us. And who taught them, but their own parents and grandparents! These lessons are handed down from generation to generation thus forming a conception of morality. We apply our own individual considerations and input as we age, and keep the beliefs and opinions that we agree with and alter or drop the ones that we do not. These lessons themselves were essentially the habits of our ancestors, and given our ability to decide the values in which we keep and those that we do not, it is in some way dependent on those that we most admire.

The two stated opinions are related because in a certain sense, morality is somewhat considered to be a "universal truth", despite the fact that though it may seem or feel so, this is not the case. Morality is a collection of abstractions or convenient fictions, really.

So although I am capable of forging a connection between the two opinions, I have to say that I disagree that either science or politics can be generalized into mere "problem solving" given that they both encapsulate so many different things and have a variety of purpose.