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Creutzer comments on What should normal people do? - Less Wrong
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Do they? (Or are you referring to the fact that people, when asked explicitly why they did something, make up some reason and convince themselves that that was it? Context suggests to me, though, that "according to themselves" refers to what they think, not what they say (and maybe then think) upon asking.)
I believe that people can only do what makes sense to them, for some very expansive meaning of "makes sense". The gain from believing this is to give up the delusion that what feels right to me should automatically transfer to other people.
True, but I know I do a lot of things without first thinking about whether they make sense. I don't generally have the time to check that for every single action I take (e.g. performing a speech act in a conversation).
That's kind of where I was pointing with "very expansive meaning of "makes sense" "-- system 1 has its own background premises, even if they aren't verbal or filtered through the conscious mind.
I'll see if I can come up with a better phrasing.
It seems to me that the situation is this: everybody does everything for a reason (surprise, surprise), but they may not know it, you may not know it, it may not be what they say it is even if they try to be honest, and it may not be a good reason.
That, unfortunately, is not a neatly summarisable point, and the question of what moral to draw from it is not trivial.
I think the latter.