Relational properties : a scientific approach to morality ?

A rather meandering and dry read, but I suspect there's something interesting here.

In physics, many properties are relational. Position is relative as are time and velocity. In each case, we need to define a property relative to something else. For example, try to say where Boston is, without saying it in relation to something else. Similarly, velocity is not actually a property of an object: it is a property of the object in relation to the observer. The insight of physical law is that if we properly define these quantities in relative terms, then we have an objective (rather than subjective) description of events.

More than a focus on parts rather than wholes, a focus on things — objects, parts, elements or wholes — causes problems when the properties we are interested in are actually properties of the relationships between things, or the context in which things are found. In the study of networks, the degree of connectivity of a node is a property of the relationships between nodes rather than of a node itself. There are many more examples.

In reductionist thinking, fitness is considered a property of the organism, or better yet of the gene. However, fitness is actually a property of an organism in a particular context. Put the same organism into a different context, and its fitness is different. This may seem obvious when stated this way, but the mathematical formulations of evolution often ignore this. They assign fitness to the organism (or gene) by averaging over the possible contexts. When an organism samples all possible places, and a gene samples all possible genetic combinations it might be part of, then we can talk about its average fitness without regard to context. But this is a strong assumption, and there are important implications for discussions of altruism and other cooperative behaviours when it is not true.

Basic concepts can be difficult to define because they have to do with relational properties. Consider “meaning.” The nature of meaning is a central topic of inquiry in philosophy. We can start to think about this by defining meaning as a relationship between a label and an entity or set of entities. This relational mapping can be established though various means. For example, a computer program may map computer data files onto images, music or movies. Such a program creates a set of relationships that give meaning to the data files. This is an objective definition of meaning in a relational context. If there was only one possible such mapping that would always be used for all labels, then meaning would be a simple idea, but there are many possible relationships and therefore meaning becomes a subtle and important topic to study.

A possible interesting way of taking a scientific approach to morality. That some properties are relational and not intrinsic to any individual object seems pretty solid to me; some other abstract concepts, such as the completeness of a survey, are measurable but not with perfect accuracy and have no real physical component at all. Morality, I suspect, can be judged objectively but only in relative, relational terms.

https://medium.com/complex-systems-channel/relational-properties-in-objective-science-d723ddb4fac4