I wasn’t offended. It was a mere claim (lol). IOW if you are going to say feelings are ‘mere’ , iow merely feelings, then you need to explain why they are mere, as you have started to do here and also demonstrate that whatever you are contrasting as a base for preferences is not mere. I see systems of morals as arbritrary (and they certainly seem to contradict each other and find no way to reconcile their opposed axioms, and these are based on thoughts, phantoms of the mind. In Zen meditation thoughts and feelings both arise and disappear. They are either both mere or neither, it seems to me, for example.
Potentially. Of course we differ.
I wasn’t claiming that my social mammal empathy was universal. I was saying that my preferences come out of my version of that. They are the result of a long, long process of development, I think. That does not mean they are right or good, but they do have a ground.
Unfortunately best is value laden and one could think all sorts of harsh and violent customs are useful for example. Spartans for example would treat children radically differently than most of us would. I don’t say that indicting these must be wrong, just that most people here would not like some of the customs that some other people think are for our best.
It seems to me much of this could be in support of preferences based on emotions and desires. I don’t reject morals, I just don’t think that way. IOW the while I avoid breaking quite a number of the ten commandments,but not because I think they are objective morals evil to brea, from God or from some other objectivity. I prefer not to murder or commit adultery. So, I don’t reject the preferences, I just see t hem as preferences.
I also do not see my emotions and preferences resolving conflicting goods ( re:iamg’s eternal project). I am not saying I have the solution to the various moral conflicts out there. I am just explaining that one can passionately want, for example, society to be certain ways, to have certain kinds of social interactions and not others, to be concerned about others, even plants and animals and strangers, and yet at the same time not believe in objective morals. Of course the ideal would be for each type of person to have their own world. Let those who yearn for war and strict hierarchy and control of emotions, desires and bodies at all times, have their own little planet to have their wars on. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge them that as long as they were all consenting.