Rationality Quotes: June 2011

Oscar_Cunningham

Y'all know the rules:

Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself.
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB.
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

Y'all know the rules:

Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself.
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB.
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

I can avoid dutch booking by applying the laws of probabiity correctly. (And in contexts that have nothing to do with morality). Do you think probability and consequentuialism are somehow the same?

There are certain arguments which people on lesswrong are expected to know. Maybe the arguments for consequentialism are not among them?

I would recount them for you, but I don't really think that will do any good.

I have been reading the material on ethics and have yet to see such an argument. There is tendency to talk in terms of utility functions, which tends to lend itself to a consequentialist way of thinking, but that is not so much proof as "if the only tool you have is a hammer...".

I also notice that there are a lot of ethical subjectivists and non cognitivsts on LW. Maybe you could point them to this wonderful proof, if I am beyond hope.

Deciding with a well-behaved preference order includes but is not limited to probability.

Consequentialism doesn't contradict those philosophies.

The arguments I know are, a la MixedNuts, bad things happen if you aren't a utility maximizer.

You can maximize a subjective utility function.

3orthonormal15y

It's not the most sophisticated form of the argument, but Yvain's recent Consequentialism FAQ is an excellent summary and a good read.

1MixedNuts15y

I hear bad things happen if you aren't a utility maximizer. Utilitarianism doesn't imply consquentialism, though; you can assign utility depending on whether (sentient?) decision processes choose virtuously and implement your favorite imperative. These ethical systems are consistent. I find them quite appalling, however. What do you mean, saving four lives is less important than the virtue of not pushing people under trolleys?