I recently realized I haven't written a lot about morality in this blog, yet. That's really strange, since it's a big topic that philosophers love to go on about and as a hobby philosopher and nihilist, I obviously have my own thoughts on it as well. So, if you're interested, here's my take on it:
Everything is meaningless. It should come as no surprise to you that I believe that. So does that mean that morality does not exist? No. I mean, it depends on your notion of existence, but I would say that moral is a term one might assign to a phenomenon that is just as real as the universe. And, for the record, it is just as meaningless as the universe. Let me explain.
Most people have a "moral compass", i.e., beliefs about which actions and decisions constitute moral behavior. They have mechanisms in place to reward those that act in accordance to their moral judgement and punish those that don't. Unless you are a psychopath, you probably know how this works. Giving someone a thumbs up for picking up trash, angrily staring at the person blasting music on the train, that sort of thing. People tend to enforce their moral standards within the limits of their power. This means that moral alignment is an important factor for the quality of relationships, as people tend favor others who they believe will act in accordance to their moral code.
This is what makes morality an important issue to consider, even for a nihilist like me. It's a simple cause and effect relationship. If I don't stick to the moral code of the society I live in, there will be consequences. If I don't honor the moral judgement of my friends, sooner or later we might not be friends anymore. Phrasing it like that sounds dishonest, like I'm just playing my part to get what I want, but I'd say that it doesn't matter for what reason people follow a moral standard. I just see morality as what it is: A set of restraints to one's actions that is necessary to live together with other people.
So the gist is that I do care about morals. I just don't believe that there is an objective morality. In fact, the most interesting part about morality is when there is disagreement about moral judgements. Those disagreements frequently happen between individuals, but they can also happen between one individuals statements and actions. People are ridiculously inconsistent when it comes to their moral judgements. This can lead to very heated arguments. Since I don't believe in an objective morality I don't tend to pick a side in those arguments. There are a lot of fundamental questions about morality that don't have a right answer.
I think that this view on morality is quite healthy and the world would be more pleasant to live in if more people saw it that way. We all don't need to follow the exact same moral standards. Having different viewpoints is what keeps us reconsidering and questioning ourselves and that is a good thing. Or at least, it would be a good thing, if people didn't consider their own morals as a piece of their identity, arguing their point of view emotionally, disregarding the possibility of a different viewpoint.
