woozle comments on Criteria for Rational Political Conversation - Less Wrong

-5 Post author: woozle 26 August 2010 03:53PM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 26 August 2010 04:24:59PM *  3 points [-]

If it's true that moral decisions cannot be made on a rational basis, then it should be impossible for me to find an example of a moral decision which was made rationally, right?

All decisions are in a sense "moral decisions". You should distinguish the process of decision-making from the question of figuring out your values. You can't define values "on rational basis", but you use a rational process to figure out what your values actually are, and to construct a plan towards achieving given values (based, in particular, on epistemically rational understanding of the world).

Comment author: woozle 26 August 2010 06:07:45PM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure I follow. Are you using "values" in the sense of "terminal values"? Or "instrumental values"? Or perhaps something else?