Amanojack comments on What is Metaethics? - Less Wrong

31 Post author: lukeprog 25 April 2011 04:53PM

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Comment author: Amanojack 27 April 2011 05:30:16PM *  0 points [-]

To interpret "Yuck!" as "That is bad/yucky" is to turn what is ostensibly an expression of subjective experience into an ostensibly "objective" statement. You may as well keep it subjective and interpret it as "I am experiencing revulsion." But you'd have to be a pretty cunning arguer to get into a debate about whether another person is really having a subjective experience of revulsion!

Comment author: thomblake 27 April 2011 05:37:32PM 0 points [-]

It's both - expressing revulsion has a normative component, and so does even experiencing revulsion.

To illustrate: If I eat something and exclaim, "Oishii!", that not only expresses that I am "experiencing deliciousness", but also that the thing I'm tasting "is delicious" - my wife can try it out with the expectation that when she eats it she will also "experience deliciousness". It is a good-tasting thing.

Comment author: Amanojack 27 April 2011 09:44:57PM 3 points [-]

It still sounds just like two people experiencing subjective deliciousness. What if a third person, or a dog, or Clippy, finds it not so delicious?