Even the assumption of a universally valid moral value fails to provide knowledge about any objective moral principle.What this assumption provides is knowledge about factual valuations and morality, but not knowledge about values per se.The knowledge provided in this manner only provides knowledge about facts such as moral systems, but never knowledge about the truly objective difference between good and evil. In order to form a moral opinion it is thus impossible to rely solely on objective facts. On the contrary, one must rely upon elements that are foreign to objective knowledge, such as feelings and volitions directed at the object of the judgment or moral opinion.115 The moral idea as such is neither true nor false. Consequently, moral ideas cannot be used to justify scientific truths. Science’s task is to determine truths, not moral obligations. Science cannot tell us what we are objectively morally obliged to do. However, it is possible to conduct scientific analyses of moral ideas, but science itself should neither be founded upon moral ideas nor be guided by them.116 To the moral sciences themselves, any application of a scientific method founded upon (certain) moral ideas undermines the scientific character and validity of the moral sciences themselves.117 Hägerström argues: p a r t i v, c h a p t e r 3 280 3. 9 summary and conclus ions : the e p i stemolog ical fut i l i ty of an obj ect ivi st ic moral theory 115 Hägerström, “Moraliska föreställningar,” p. 45; “Moral Propositions,” p. 92. 116 Hägerström,“Moraliska föreställningar,” pp. 45-50;“Moral Propositions,” pp. 91-96. 117 See also Hägerström, “I moralpsykologiska frågor II,” pp. 99-98. 118 Hägerström,“Moraliska föreställningar,” p. 49;“Moral Propositions,” p. 95. Swedish: “Men lika litet som en religionsvetenskap får stödja sig på ett religiöst medvetande, får en moralvetenskap ha till bas ett moraliskt. I båda fallen är det fråga om ett subjektivt tänkande, ett känslo- eller intressetänkande, som självt kan vara föremål för vetenskap, men icke begrunda någon sådan.” “But just as a science of religion cannot be based upon a religious consciousness, so a moral science cannot have as its basis a moral consciousness. In both cases it is a question of a subjective process of thought, which itself may be an object for science, but cannot be the foundation for any science.”118
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