Comment on What is Metaethics?

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:15:44 GMT

Wants are fairly straighforwads, but oughts are often tangled up with society, manipulation and signalling.

When it comes to goals then in a sense an intelligent agent is similar to a stone rolling down a hill, both are moving towards a sort of equilibrium. The difference is that intelligence is following more complex trajectories as its ability to read and respond to environmental cues is vastly greater than that of a stone. And that is the reason why we perceive oughts to be mainly a fact about society, you ought not to be indifferent about the goals of other agents if they are instrumental to what you want.

"Ought" statements are subjectively objective as they refer to the interrelationship between your goals and the necessary actions to achieve them. "Ought" statements point out the necessary consistency between means and ends. If you need pursue action X to achieve "want" Y you ought to want to do Y.

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