Will_Newsome comments on Model Uncertainty, Pascalian Reasoning and Utilitarianism - Less Wrong

23 Post author: multifoliaterose 14 June 2011 03:19AM

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Comment author: Will_Newsome 15 June 2011 12:23:58AM -1 points [-]

I don't really get it either. It seems that standard Less Wrong moral philosophy can be seen at some level of abstraction as a divergence from utilitarianism, e.g. because of apparently widespread consequentialism and focus on decision theory. But yeah, you'd think the many disavowments of utilitarianism would have done more to dispel the notion. Does your impression agree with mine though that it seems that many people think Less Wrong is largely utilitarian?

(BTW, utilitarianism is usually considered normative ethics, not metaethics.)

I desperately want a word that covers the space I want to cover that doesn't pattern match to incorrect/fuzzy thing. (E.g. I think it is important to remember that one's standard moral beliefs can have an interesting implicit structure at the ethical/metaethical levels, vice versa, et cetera.) Sometimes I use "shouldness" or "morality" but those are either misleading or awkward depending on context. Are there obvious alternatives I'm missing? I used "moral philosophy" above but I'm pretty sure that's also straight-up incorrect. Epistemology of morality is clunky and probably means something else.