Comment on Rationality Quotes October 2012

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:11:13 GMT

This raises immediate concerns, and that's just in the first sentence.

Consider that from the inside it's impossible to distinguish between the true beliefs that you have and the false ones that you have. I think any system of morality that doesn't take place within a realistic understanding of human limitations is broken as a guide to human action. The converse of my first sentence is what seems truly concerning to me, the view that people who make mistakes are doing something wrong.

Incorrect. If I believe that an apple will fall if I drop it, I can test this emperically by dropping an apple. I can judge many beliefs based on results, not on other beliefs.

Your interpretation of empirical results is mediated by your subjective beliefs. For instance, you believe that empiricism is a valid way of knowing the objective world. You believe that the concept of an apple is a meaningful one, as is the concept of dropping and falling.

At this level of simplicity, it might seem trivial to mention such beliefs, but you shouldn't deny that those beliefs are necessary for your argument to function. You are no god; you are an ape. You do not have access to pure and unfiltered objectivity. Since that's true, if we used a moral system that forced us to abide by pure objectivity as opposed to subjective interpretations of objectivity, we would be totally paralyzed. The system would be functionally nihilistic because it couldn't weigh between competing possible futures at all because all of our knowledge about the possible future is somewhat subjective.

Overconfidence in what seems objective and is objective is bad because it's exactly the same as overconfidence in what seems objective and isn't objective. We need to recognize that some aspects of our arguments are just necessarily going to depend on assumptions, because if we don't recognize assumptions for what they are we cultivate habits of thought that help maintain existing biases.

Given that our mistakes and our successes are indistinguishable, we should give both the same moral status. The morality of a person must be judged by their intentions insofar as it's possible to understand those intentions. Blaming someone for a genuine mistake is a morally wrong and illogical thing to do.

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