6222 Why is Morality Objective?

Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux

Economics, Anarchism, Stefan, News & Politics, Atheist, Higher Education, Religion & Spirituality, Stephen, Government, God, Philosophy, Violence, Freedomain, Rogan, Ron, Society & Culture, Radio, Paul, History, Liberalism, Libertarian, Capitalism, Market, Molyneux, Anarchy, Free, Classical, Family, Freedom, State, Joe, Podcast, Atheism, Stephan, Education, Podcasts

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Philosopher Stefan Molyneux explores universal morality, emphasizing the necessity for moral principles to transcend personal and cultural biases. Molyneux contrasts human negotiation through language and reason with the instinctual behaviors of animals, highlighting the unique human capacity for cooperation and moral framework development. He critiques subjective morality, arguing that it leads to chaos and undermines universal standards. He explores the implications of moral relativism, advocating for an objective moral truth to guide human interactions and reduce violence. Molyneux addresses the complexities of violence, asserting that while self-defense is permissible, initiating violence contradicts human morality. Conclusively, he reinforces the idea that discussions around morality must engage with universal truths, inviting further dialogue on the subject.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, hello. Hello. How are you? It's to Ben Moline Ute.
0:06.3	channeling Asterian from Freedomain.Fridemain.com to help at the show, shop.org.
0:12.1	For your glorious free domain merch and peaceful parenting book to get your print copy of peaceful parenting.
0:20.5	Both the condensed version and the
0:23.9	full version. So I hope you would check that out, freedomman.com slash donate for the show.
0:28.6	Okay. So question, why, why? Is morality universal? Why does morality have to be universal? Why is it defined as universal? Why can't it
0:41.0	just be a local preference, a personal preference, a cultural preference, a regional preference,
0:44.9	whatever, right? Why does morality have to be universal? So morality arises out of a very simple dichotomy, or I suppose you could say, options, binary options, in human life, which is that we have the ability, through language and reason, to negotiate rather than use force, right? That is our choice.
1:16.9	Those are our options. We can use force, and with force I include threat, I include theft, fraud, and so on, right? This is all force. And the reason being that
1:35.0	animals threaten each other, animals steal from each other all the time, and animals use
1:41.9	deception or fraud all the time.
1:45.0	That's what camouflage is to some degree.
1:48.0	So, in terms of getting resources, human beings have the unique ability
1:54.0	based upon language and our conceptual capacities.
1:59.0	We have this unique in the universe as far as we know it, we have this unique ability to trade, to convince, to entice, to seduce, right? We have the capacity unique among animals to use language and concepts to convince
2:25.5	rather than to force. Now, when it comes to enticing and seduction, there are a lot of animals
2:32.0	who do that. There are, of course, these crazy birds.
2:40.1	The males will build this big, elaborate nesting scenario and will try to entice the females to mate. I mean, there are, of course, a lot of animals that rape, you know, ducks and dolphins
2:44.7	and so on. But there are a lot of animals who entice. There are mating displays. You know,
2:49.9	the male peacock's giant tail is a big mating
2:52.7	display and so on. My bubble butt, obviously, it's in the same category as a whole. So,
3:00.9	human beings, literally completely and totally among the animals, have the ability to use language and concepts
	...

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