Desrtopa comments on [Poll] Less Wrong and Mainstream Philosophy: How Different are We? - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 26 September 2012 12:25PM

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Comment author: Desrtopa 26 September 2012 03:16:10PM 7 points [-]

Other: I think it's a false dichotomy. I think that an ideal system of government will probably sometimes have to sacrifice libertarian principles in favor of egalitarian ones, and sometimes have to sacrifice egalitarian principles in favor of libertarian ones.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 26 September 2012 03:26:09PM 3 points [-]

What principles will it use in making such choices?

Comment author: Desrtopa 26 September 2012 03:30:42PM 7 points [-]

How happy, safe, productive, etc. people are. I don't see either libertarianism or egalitarianism as terminal values.

Comment author: Manfred 26 September 2012 05:12:15PM *  0 points [-]

I believe Richard's point is that e.g. egalitarianism is in fact a system for making these sorts of choices (are people more equal? Yes? Do that!).

And of course the principles that you use define your "actual" system, which is neither egalitarian nor libertarian (which would be "are people more free? Yes? Do that!")

Comment author: DanArmak 26 September 2012 03:44:01PM -1 points [-]

Ideal by what metric? Unless you're a moral realist, there probably isn't such a thing.

Comment author: Desrtopa 26 September 2012 03:45:15PM 7 points [-]

Ideal in terms of fulfilling my terminal values, which contain a term for the satisfaction of others.

Comment author: DanArmak 26 September 2012 04:50:02PM 4 points [-]

You're right. My comment was silly and aggressive. (Of course it did not seem that way when I wrote it.) I seem to have a blind spot when I think I see moral realism.

My apologies.