Introduction

Key idea: A philosophical dialogue examines whether moral reasoning is possible without human prejudices and cultural frameworks.

TREBLA: Good morning Alex.

ALEX: Good morning Trebla.

TREBLA: How are you? I am glad that you want to accompany me on my daily walk.

ALEX: It is a beautiful day, let us enjoy the yellow landscape with blooming rapeseed.

TREBLA: During my daily walks I often listen to podcasts about philosophy, science, and evolution. After listening to them, I reflect on what I have heard. Would you find it interesting, while we walk, to reflect together on these subjects?

ALEX: That seems very interesting to me.

TREBLA: One of the things that struck me was the discussion about good and evil, especially with regard to humans. Shall we first discuss how we might best approach good and evil, Alex?

ALEX: Yes, that seems like an interesting challenge.

TREBLA: Do you not think that one of the greatest problems is that we ourselves are part of humanity? We call something “good” when it appears to benefit us.

ALEX: That sounds logical, but how can we escape from that?

TREBLA: Perhaps by mentally taking some distance. By placing ourselves outside the system and considering the Earth as a whole.

ALEX: Yes, that seems like a reasonable starting point.

TREBLA: On Earth we find animals, humans, vegetation, various landscapes, and so on. Consider it as if someone has built a model railway layout with trees, ski lifts, and railways, and is now considering whether everything works good. And by “good” we do not initially mean morally good. But functionally good: the system functions well when it is able to continue to exist without destroying itself.

We must look at this system as a spectator looks at a model: with attention to the whole, without immediately making moral judgments about the individual components.

ALEX: That seems like a good starting point.

TREBLA: Our main goal, therefore, is to understand the functioning of this subsystem “Earth”. We should not place humans at the center, but rather the subsystem Earth; humans are only one part of it. It does not matter if one component functions less well, as long as the whole system continues to function.

So a fundamental question arises: from which perspective are we actually looking?