Will_Sawin comments on Pluralistic Moral Reductionism - Less Wrong

33 Post author: lukeprog 01 June 2011 12:59AM

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Comment author: Will_Sawin 01 June 2011 11:21:58AM *  2 points [-]

No. We both use the letter sequence "should" to direct our actions.

We believe that we should follow the results of our should-functions. We believe that the alien from Mog is wrong to follow the results of his should-function. These are beliefs, not definitions.

Imagine if you said "The sun will rise tomorrow" and I responded:

"This is NormalAnomaly_Will. WillSawin_Will says the same thing, because we're both humans. #$%^$_Will, where #$%^$ is the name of an alien from planet Mog, may say something completely different. You and I both use the letter sequence w-i-l-l to refer to the output of our own unique will-functions."

Comment author: wedrifid 01 June 2011 12:16:57PM 2 points [-]

Normal_Anomaly's ontology is coherent. What you describe regarding beliefs is also coherent but refers to a different part of reality space than what Normal is trying to describe.

Comment author: Will_Sawin 01 June 2011 03:52:18PM 2 points [-]

I don't understand what "ontology" and "reality space" mean in this context.

Here's a guess:

You're saying that the word "WillSawin_Should" is a reasonable word to use. It is well-defined, and useful in some contexts. But Plain-Old-Should is also a word with a meaning that is useful in some contexts.

in which case I would agree with you.

Comment author: wedrifid 01 June 2011 04:07:48PM 2 points [-]

I was trying to convey that when you speak of beliefs and determination of actions you are describing an entirely different concept than what Normal_Anomaly was describing. To the extent that presenting your statements as a contradiction of Normal's is both a conversational and epistemic error.