Really? Self-sacrifice and penance are almost the basis of one the most popular moral theories in the world. Just go ask the closest Christian you might have.
> Self-sacrifice and penance are almost the basis of one the most popular moral theories in the world
You can't make those objective, though. That is my point. (It's not like I haven't actually heard of Christian morality before.)
Ultimately, the only thing that actually matters for any living organism is pleasure. Thus, only pleasure, ultimately, can be good or bad for an organism.
I mean "pleasure" in the broadest possible sense, but it's always either a physical sensation or an emotion.
Subjective things can only truly matter if they bring pleasure or cause pain. So my point is still correct. (We need a definition of subjective, though, so this probably isn't clear.)
It's true that someone could subjectively think, mistakenly, that something matters, which doesn't. So someone could be wrong about what matters. e.g. Someone could think that God's approval matters, when in reality, only pleasure and pain matter for their own sake.
I'm not saying that pleasure is obviously the only ultimate good; I'm saying that it is the only ultimate good.
And I would challenge someone to make an argument that duty is good, or, in fact, anything other than pleasure. It is pretty obvious that none of those arguments work.
You can't make those objective, though. That is my point. (It's not like I haven't actually heard of Christian morality before.)
Ultimately, the only thing that actually matters for any living organism is pleasure. Thus, only pleasure, ultimately, can be good or bad for an organism.
I mean "pleasure" in the broadest possible sense, but it's always either a physical sensation or an emotion.