Dwayne Holmes is a PhD student in neuroscience at Amsterdam’s VU University Medical Center, with prior degrees in philosophy and molecular biology. He is particularly interested in how science and philosophy impact our understanding of ethics (from molecules to social norms), and when he gets a chance he runs a website (using an increasingly pointless pseudonym) devoted to a form of moral skepticism/antirealism (thegooddelusion.blogspot.com).

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Harris’s expanded definition of “science” relies on a loosening of criteria that can become problematic for those in traditional scientific fields such as physics and biology. His most questionable claim is that the existence of answers in principle provides sufficient grounds for defining something as scientific. If that were true, Intelligent Design (ID) theory would become classified as a legitimate science, as there are answers in principle to the questions they ask. The difference between ID theories and traditional scientific theories is that the methodology underlying ID cannot generate answers in practice. For many that is a critical distinction (and Harris admits his approach may not meet that criterion).

If we decide to accept a broad definition of science (just to let Harris’s moral theory “in”), future court cases regarding science education may then hinge on being able to explain the difference between science (for people in lab coats) versus science (for everyone else) such that they shouldn’t be taught together in a “science” class. Why make the difficult job of protecting legitimate science education any harder than it already is?

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By using the most generic conceptions of “consequence” and “good,” it is possible to force deontology and virtue ethics to fit into the category of consequentialist theory. But that would not change the fact that traditional consequentialist theories (like utilitarianism or TML theory) are characterized by vastly different ideas regarding what consequences are desired (including for whom) and how to compare choices when making a moral judgment. In fact, outside the extreme end of avoiding absolute misery for everyone, Harris has not made a case that alternative systems compare practical consequences at all while rendering moral judgments, much less in the same way as consequentialist theories do.

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That an abstract principle might be chosen (credibly) over practical consequences can be seen with a simple hypothetical. Imagine that scientific evidence emerges that a false belief in wholly benign star fairies (who help when all natural/scientific measures have been exhausted, and require no other false beliefs or actions against others) leads to greater happiness, health, and longevity. According to traditional consequentialist theories (including Harris’) it would be right to maintain that false belief and promote it in others. More important, it would be wrong to promote doubt in others.

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