Spurlock comments on Tendencies in reflective equilibrium - Less Wrong

27 Post author: Yvain 20 July 2011 10:38AM

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Comment author: Spurlock 20 July 2011 12:50:53PM *  2 points [-]

For weakest implicit belief, I think I would have nominated "That I have the slightest idea how to properly calculate the probability of the mugger following through on his/her threat".

Also, Torture vs. Specks seems like another instance where many of us are willing to sacrifice apparent consistency. Most coherent formulations of utilitarianism must choose torture, yet many utilitarians are hesitant to do so.

In both cases, it seems like what we're doing isn't abandoning consistency, but admitting to the possibility that our consistent formula (e.g. naive utilitarianism) isn't necessarily the optimal / subjectively best / most reflectively equilibrial one. We therefore may choose to abandon it in favor of the intuitive answer (don't pay the mugger, choose specks, etc), not because we choose to be inconsistent, but because we predict the existence of a Better But Still Consistent Formula not yet known to us.

Of course, as Yvain notes, we can take pretty much any set of arbitrary preferences and create a "consistent" formula by adding enough terms to the equation. The difference is that the Better But Unknown formula above is both consistent and something we'd be in reflective equilibrium about.

Comment author: TrE 20 July 2011 07:14:49PM 1 point [-]

By "Dust vs. Specks" you surely mean "torture vs. dust specks", and with "Specks", you want to say "torture", don't you?

Comment author: Spurlock 20 July 2011 07:27:29PM *  0 points [-]

Fixed thanks. But no, I meant specks. It seems like utilitarianism (as opposed to just typical intuitive morality) commands you to inflict Torture. You only want to choose specks because your brain doesn't multiply properly, etc.

Of course, not everyone agrees that Utilitarianism picks Torture, but the argument for Torture is certainly a utilitarian one. So in this case picking Specks anyway seems like a case of overriding (at least naive versions of) utilitarianism.

Comment author: TrE 21 July 2011 09:32:19AM *  0 points [-]

Wait...

Most coherent formulations of utilitarianism must choose specks, yet many utilitarians are hesitant to do so.

Are you sure that should be specks? If so, I am confused.

Comment author: Spurlock 21 July 2011 11:45:57AM 1 point [-]

Wow. Sorry, you're obviously right. Brain totally misfired on me I guess.