RichardKennaway comments on Attention Less Wrong: We need an FAQ - Less Wrong

11 Post author: Kevin 27 April 2010 10:06AM

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Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 28 April 2010 12:36:12PM *  7 points [-]

I would describe Eliezer's position as

  • standard relativism,

  • minus the popular confusion that relativism means that you would or could choose to find no moral arguments compelling,

  • plus the belief that nearly all humans would, with sufficient reflection, find nearly the same moral arguments compelling because of our shared genetic heritage.

Eliezer objects to being called a relativist, but I think that this is just semantics.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 29 April 2010 01:20:25PM *  4 points [-]

Eliezer objects to being called a relativist, but I think that this is just semantics.

The third bullet goes so far beyond relativism that it seems quite justified to deny the word. If just about everyone everywhere is observed to have a substantial commonality in what they think right or wrong (whether or not genetic heritage has anything to do with it), then that's enough to call it objective, even if we do not know why it is so, how it came to be, or how it works. Knowledge may be imperfect, and people may disagree about it, but that does not mean that there is nothing that it is knowledge about.

We can imagine Paperclippers, Pebblesorters, Baby Eaters, and Superhappies, but I don't take these imagined beings seriously except as interesting thought experiments, to be trumped if and when we actually encounter intelligent aliens.

(BTW, regarding accessibility to newcomers: I just made four references that will be immediately obvious to any long-time reader, but completely opaque to any newcomer. A glossary page would be a good idea.)

Paperclippers

Pebblesorters

Baby Eaters and Superhappies