Eugine_Nier comments on Schelling fences on slippery slopes - Less Wrong

179 Post author: Yvain 16 March 2012 11:44PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 20 March 2012 03:51:15AM 9 points [-]

But That doesn't logically imply we will therefore kill born babies.

You may want to look at this.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 21 March 2012 01:31:54AM 8 points [-]

Thanks, I've seen that before. What interested me about the reaction to it was every commentator decried them for suggesting babies should be killed, said that it would give weight to the arguments of anti-abortionists or that it showed how out of touch academics were with public opinion. But no-one gave an argument in response about why an 8 month abortion and a born baby are different in a morally relevant way. I had underestimated how much in general public discourse even discussing a morally condemned act was itself condemned.

In the context of slippery slopes, again this is moving between two adjacent points not showing you can just as easily move to any point on the scale.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 21 March 2012 04:12:26AM 3 points [-]

In the context of slippery slopes, again this is moving between two adjacent points not showing you can just as easily move to any point on the scale.

Yes, and then we move to a point adjacent to the new point, and then to a point adjacent to the next point. This is how slippery slopes work.

Comment author: Incorrect 21 March 2012 05:17:42AM *  0 points [-]

He means adjacent without ascension/descension: lateral movement, i.e. change in non-morally relevant variables.