Materialist Morality

Some of the classical atheist philosophers, such as Camus and Nietzsche, struggled with how can we justify morality in a world without the divine. I wonder if what they were really struggling with was how can we humanize others when we have a materialistic framework that indicates that we are cosmic accidents. Because when you humanize others, then it becomes much easier to treat them in a moral manner.

One of my disappointments of the new atheists is that, with the exception of Harris, they do not struggle with the issues of morality in the way the classic atheist philosophers did ….

George Yancey

I enjoy reading Yancey because he is a (a) black (b) conservative © sociologist, but his question today is uncommonly deep: how, from a materialist foundation, does one see others as something other than (1) animals or (2) commodities, both of which alternatives dehumanize.

So far, no takers in the comments (but then I’ve never noticed how active his comments are).

My main blog is the Tipsy Teetotaler, http://intellectualoid.com.