Morality" centrally refers to a set of beliefs and practices only attested in humans,
...Morality does also apply to non-human organisms, for example close human relatives such as chimpanzees and why not alien life on other planets or future successors to humans?
A) centrally=/= only.
B) You are blurring the distinction between moral agents and moral patients.
Ethical fitnessism is not founded on the behaviour of non-human organisms.
So why did you bring in the example of the predator?
No, [muggers] probably value something that can be cashed out in fitness promoting terms, like continued survival, or enhanced attractiveness based on resources.
Exactly!Ethical fitnessism is more intuitive than any other established moral theory, since it is practiced more, not only by other animals, but by humans to, not only in prehistoric times, but in modern times as well.
Well, you can certain get a more widely practiced morality out of defining mugging as moral...but the cost is defining mugging as moral
All contractarianism is necessarily based on self-interest.
For some value of self interest. Switching from a near mode, low time preference notion of morality, to a far mode, high time preference form of self interest is a step forward in morality.
Traditional contractarianism is based on the self-interest of living humans. That is why it is criticised for disregarding future human generations
I don't see that. Concern for future generations is a widespread value, so it is bound to be written into contracts.
and even other animals. Fitnessist contractarianism is based on the Darwinian self-interest, which is the intrinsic value of ethical fitnessism. Therefore it does not disregard future generations.
And other animals?
Of course the practice of ethics has a function! But ethics per se does not.
I don't see what you mean by ethics per se,
So why did you bring in the example of the predator?
The example of the predator and the quarry illustrates the nature and origin of self-interest and of conflict between incompatible moral values. Above all, it illustrates the indexicality of ethics.
Well, you can [certainly] get a more widely practiced morality out of defining mugging as moral...but the cost is defining mugging as moral
We are certainly not defining mugging as moral. The idea is not to make your morals as practised as possible, but to make morals realistic, adapted and possible to...
I noticed that there has been some earlier discussion about Sam Harris’s Moral Landscape Challenge here at LW. As a writer on the Swedish politico-philosophical blog The Inverted Fable of Reality, I would like to share a response to the challenge, written by our main contributor, which I believe is interesting to read even if you are not familiar with The Moral Landscape or its content. See this link for the response and a short explanation of the challenge.
The response takes a different approach to most responses to the challenge. It is divided into four parts and starts by asking which ethic is most compatible with science and reality and finally tries to answer this question.