Submitted by BernardJOrtcutt t3_107f3ud in philosophy
Symsav t1_j4rnznb wrote
Reply to comment by SvetlanaButosky in /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | January 09, 2023 by BernardJOrtcutt
I don’t need to refute the nature of biological needs. To claim we have biological needs is a descriptive claim, to claim we ought to act in accordance with them is a normative claim. To derive a normative claim from a descriptive claim is inherently illogical.
Time for the open question argument. Let’s use, for example, ‘maintaining one’s health’ as our biological need. For this to be reducible to good, asking ‘is maintaining one’s health good?’ has to be a closed question (the answer must be yes in all instances - as it would be to ask ‘is good good?’) The answer is yes sometimes - most of the time, even - but what about when sacrificing your food so that your child can eat? (or any other instance of an answer which is anything but ‘objectively yes’).
Therefore, although biological needs are universally experienced and usually what we navigate towards, they are far from objectively moral.
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