Peterdjones comments on By Which It May Be Judged - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 10 December 2012 04:26AM

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Comment author: Peterdjones 17 December 2012 04:37:49PM 1 point [-]

"some other M" will still count as morality for many purposes, because self-serving ideas ("be loyal to the Geniralissimo", "obey your husband") are transmitted thorugh the same memetic channels are genuine morality. Morality is already blurred with disgust reactions and tribal shibboleths.

Comment author: PeterisP 19 December 2012 11:57:49AM 0 points [-]

What is the difference between "self-serving ideas" as you describe, "tribal shibboleths" and "true morality" ?

What if "Peterdjones-true-morality" is "PeterisP-tribal-shibboleth", and "Peterdjones-tribal-shibboleth" is "PeterisP-true-morality" ?

Comment author: Peterdjones 19 December 2012 02:22:23PM 0 points [-]

What is the difference between "self-serving ideas" as you describe, "tribal shibboleths" and "true morality" ?

universalizability

Comment author: PeterisP 22 December 2012 12:26:05PM 2 points [-]

That's not sufficient - there can be wildly different, incompatible universalizable morality systems based on different premises and axioms; and each could reasonably claim to be that they are a true morality and the other is a tribal shibboleth.

As an example (but there are others), many of the major religious traditions would definitely claim to be universalizable systems of morality; and they are contradicting each other on some points.

Comment author: Peterdjones 27 December 2012 11:22:37AM 1 point [-]

That's not sufficient -

Maybe. But in context it is onlhy necessary, since in context the point is to separate out the non-etchial cclams which have been piggybacked onto ethics.

there can be wildly different, incompatible universalizable morality systems based on different premises and axioms;

That's not obvious.

As an example (but there are others), many of the major religious traditions would definitely claim to be universalizable systems of morality; and they are contradicting each other on some points.

The points they most obviouslty contradict each other on tend to be the most symbolic ones, about diet and dress, etc.

Comment author: PeterisP 28 December 2012 09:46:23AM *  1 point [-]

OK, for a slightly clearer example, in the USA abortion debate, the pro-life "camp" definitely considers pro-life to be moral and wants to apply to everyone; and pro-choice "camp" definitely considers pro-choice to be moral and to apply to everyone.

This is not a symbolic point, it is a moral question that defines literally life-and-death decisions.

Comment author: BerryPick6 27 December 2012 12:53:47PM 0 points [-]

The points they most obviouslty contradict each other on tend to be the most symbolic ones, about diet and dress, etc.

I would dispute this. Kant's second formulation of the Categorical Imperative is pretty clearly contradictory to some of the universalisable commandments given by versions of theistic morality.

Comment author: Peterdjones 27 December 2012 01:20:50PM 1 point [-]

Examples?

Comment author: BerryPick6 27 December 2012 02:05:38PM *  -1 points [-]

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”


"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you."

Comment author: Peterdjones 27 December 2012 02:13:35PM 1 point [-]

“You shall not covet

Ermm...what's the teaching that says covetousness is fine? Ayn Rand?

"Observe the Sabbath day

If that is taken to mean the Jewish Sabbath specifically, that is a shibboleth. If it is taken broadly to mean "holdiays are good" ot "you need to take a break", who disagrees?

Comment author: BerryPick6 27 December 2012 03:06:51PM 0 points [-]

Ah, no, I wasn't being clear enough.

Both these commandments talk about other people as means to ends, rather than only as ends, which is a violation of Kant's Categorical Imperative, as I mentioned in the great-grandfather. The bolded parts are the main offenders.

Comment author: BerryPick6 19 December 2012 03:33:57PM -1 points [-]

universalizability

Why? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you know that this is the case?

Comment author: MugaSofer 17 December 2012 06:04:43PM 0 points [-]

Very true, but I'm not sure why you posted this as a reply to that comment.

Comment author: Peterdjones 18 December 2012 10:59:24AM 2 points [-]

Theres motivation to redefine morality, and reason to think it stil is in some sense morality once it has been redefined. Neither is true of maths.

Comment author: MugaSofer 18 December 2012 06:17:32PM 2 points [-]

Oh, I see. So your comment basically said "True, but it's easy to inadvertently treat this "other M" as morality."