On moral properties

[Magical Realist]

Do moral properties, defined as an objective quality of goodness or virtue and evil or badness in a person, exist? At what point do enough bad choices result in you being defined as a bad person? What value is there in calling someone "bad" or "evil" just for making a bad choice? Or is that only a relative evaluation of your social sphere? A way of morally justifying ostracizing them from our lives? Are some people just born to be "bad" (ie. to make bad choices)? Can they change from being "bad"? Can a so-called "good" person change from being good? Finally, without cultural programming, would there even be people defined as "good" or bad", "saints" and "sinners"?

[C C]

The musical note of "D" sounds harmonious when it is played with a G note and B note. But replace it with a C# note and the triad changes to harshly dissonant. Neither is an inherent property of "D" or "C#". Those values contingently fall out of extrinsic relationships with other notes.

The human behaviors that moral labels are applied to exist or occur. But why particular labels are affixed is the result of external contexts and the evaluative judgments of this or that system of conduct.

Invented ethical schemes are necessary, similar to why that blueprints for a dwelling are necessary (either transcribed on paper or carried in the head). Without a proper plan or guiding principles, the abode that's assembled may be an ineffective, randomly cobbled together mess.

[Magical Realist]

It all must've started back in prehistoric times, viewing other tribes as inherently evil and bad like monsters and beasts. Perhaps all too reminiscent of our cannibalistic Neanderthal cousins. It all served the purpose of making tribe members more consolidated and strong against outer threats. But as we evolved more and learned how to peacefully coexist together in large cities, that primal belief in certain evil "others" and certain good heroes got projected into religions and mythologies as monsters and demons and angels and gods, eventually resulting in the concept of original sin and wickedness inherent in all men. We all became cursed at that point, bad not merely in action or choice but in our very being.

To this day this instinctively programmed habit of ascribing badness as a state of what one just incurably is persists in racism, homophobia, religious persecution, political conflict, nativism, the Victorian era concept of insanity and imbecility, terrorists, and nowadays in criminal psychology as pathological predators. And otoh hand goodness as a state of being too, as the hero or heroine, the deified leaders, saints, honored celebrities, historical figures, first responders, and war soldiers/veterans. So it is we continue to mentally rush back and forth between these polar absolutes of good and evil, fighting each other over this and that and always overlooking the subtle and essentially human reality of the morally neutral "in between".