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Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Morality is Awesome - Less Wrong
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Metaethics is about how to decide how to decide if something is awesome.
Metaethics is describing the properties of the kind of theory that is capable of deciding if something is awesome.
This is why I claim to not know what it is... Everybody gets confused.
Is morality objective? Is morality universal? --> Metaethics.
When is lying wrong? When is stealing wrong? --> Ethics.
Meta-ethics is usually the process of thinking about awesomeness while getting confused by the facts that words feel like they have have platonic essences, and that the architecture of the human goal system isn't obvious and intuitive (things feel like they can be innately motivating). Good meta-ethics could be called dissolving those confusions. [Meta-ethics is best not practiced unless you're confident you can get it right, since getting it wrong can lead you to absurd conclusions.]