NancyLebovitz comments on Virtue Ethics for Consequentialists - Less Wrong

33 Post author: Will_Newsome 04 June 2010 04:08PM

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Comment author: thomblake 09 June 2010 02:37:50PM 2 points [-]

I think Vladimir Nesov's response and khafra's response are correct, but there's more to be said.

Even granting for the moment that 'ability to steal without getting caught' can be called a trait of character, there are empirical claims that the virtue ethicist would make against this.

First, no one actually has that skill - if you steal, eventually you will be caught.

Second, the sort of person who goes around stealing is not the sort of person who can cultivate the social virtues and develop deep, lasting interpersonal relationships, which is an integral component of the good life for humans.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 09 June 2010 03:57:48PM 0 points [-]

First, no one actually has that skill - if you steal, eventually you will be caught.

How is it possible to know that with certainty?

Comment author: thomblake 09 June 2010 05:03:46PM 0 points [-]

How is it possible to know that with certainty?

Should I understand this question as "What experimental result would cause you to update the probability of that belief to above a particular threshold"? Because my prior for it is pretty high at this point. Or are you looking for the opposite / falsification criteria?

Comment author: Blueberry 09 June 2010 05:18:35PM 1 point [-]

If you're a good enough driver, there's a decent chance you'll never get in a car crash. If you study stealing and security systems enough, and carefully plan, I don't see why you would be likely to be caught eventually. Why is your prior high?

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 09 June 2010 05:50:32PM *  1 point [-]

Agreed, with the addition that car crashes are public while stealing is covert, so it's harder to know how much stealing is going on.