I think you’re conflating moral value with value in general. People value their pets, but this has nothing to do with the pet’s instrumental moral value.
So a relevant question is “Are you allowed to trade off moral value for non-moral value?” To me, morality ranks (probability distributions of) timelines by moral preference. Morally better is morally better, but nothing is required of you. There’s no “demandingness”. I don’t buy into the notions of “morally permissible” or “morally required”: These lines in the sand seem like sociological observations (e.g. whether people are morally repulsed by certain actions in the current time and place) rather than normative truths.
I do think having more focus on moral value is beneficial, not just because it’s moral, but because it endures. If you help a lot of people, that’s something you’ll value until you die. Whereas if I put a bunch of my time into playing chess, maybe I’ll consider that to be a waste of time at some point in the future. There’s other things, like enjoying relationships with your family, that also aren’t anywhere close to the most moral thing you could be doing, but you’ll probably continue to value.
You’re allowed to value things that aren’t about serving the world.
I think you’re conflating moral value with value in general. People value their pets, but this has nothing to do with the pet’s instrumental moral value.
So a relevant question is “Are you allowed to trade off moral value for non-moral value?” To me, morality ranks (probability distributions of) timelines by moral preference. Morally better is morally better, but nothing is required of you. There’s no “demandingness”. I don’t buy into the notions of “morally permissible” or “morally required”: These lines in the sand seem like sociological observations (e.g. whether people are morally repulsed by certain actions in the current time and place) rather than normative truths.
I do think having more focus on moral value is beneficial, not just because it’s moral, but because it endures. If you help a lot of people, that’s something you’ll value until you die. Whereas if I put a bunch of my time into playing chess, maybe I’ll consider that to be a waste of time at some point in the future. There’s other things, like enjoying relationships with your family, that also aren’t anywhere close to the most moral thing you could be doing, but you’ll probably continue to value.
You’re allowed to value things that aren’t about serving the world.