Cyan comments on Open Thread: January 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 01 January 2010 05:02PM

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Comment author: Zack_M_Davis 11 January 2010 11:15:20AM *  2 points [-]

Yudkowsky briefly addressed moral luck:

Let's say someone gravely declares, of some moral dilemma [...] that there is no moral answer; both options are wrong and blamable; whoever faces the dilemma has had poor moral luck. Fine, let's suppose this is the case: then when you cannot be innocent, justified, or praiseworthy, what will you choose anyway?

Lately I've actually been thinking that maybe we should split up morality into two concepts, and deal with them separately: one referring to moral sentiments, and another referring to what we actually do. It seems like a lot of discussions of utilitarianism versus deontology treat them as two arbitrary viewpoints or positions, but insofar as my thinking has trended utilitarian lately, it hasn't been because I'm attracted to a utilitarian position, but because Cox's theorem [edit: sic] forces it. Even if I draw up a set of rights that I think must not be violated, I'm still going to have to make decisions under uncertainty, which I would guess means acting to minimize the expected number of rights-violations.

Comment author: Cyan 11 January 2010 02:00:38PM *  1 point [-]

Cox's theorem doesn't deal with utility, only plausibility. The utility stuff comes from looking at preference relations -- some big names there are von Neumann, Morgenstern and L.J. Savage.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 January 2010 08:48:04PM 1 point [-]

Also keyword, "Dutch book".

Comment author: Zack_M_Davis 11 January 2010 08:44:14PM 0 points [-]

Right, I knew that. Thanks.