komponisto comments on Why didn't people (apparently?) understand the metaethics sequence? - Less Wrong

12 Post author: ChrisHallquist 29 October 2013 11:04PM

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Comment author: komponisto 07 November 2013 07:48:20PM 0 points [-]

Now just hold on a second. You are arguing by uncharitable formulation, implying that there is tension between two claims when, logically, there is none. (Forgive me for not assuming you were doing that, and thereby, according to you, "ignoring" your previous comment.) There is nothing contradictory about holding that (1) ethical theories that include moral luck are wrong; and (2) utilitarianism is an ethical theory and not a meta-ethical theory.

(1) is an ethical claim. (2) is the conjunction of a meta-ethical claim ("utilitarianism is an ethical theory") and a meta-meta-ethical claim ("utilitarianism is not a meta-ethical theory").

( I hereby declare this comment to supersede all of my previous comments on the subject of the distinction between ethics and meta-ethics, insofar as there is any inconsistency; and in the event there is any inconsistency, I pre-emptively cede you dialectical victory except insofar as doing so would contradict anything else I have said in this comment.)

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 07 November 2013 08:50:02PM 0 points [-]

OK, if you've abandoned your claim that I "consequentialism is not a meta-ethical attribute," is true by convention, then that's fine. I'll just disagree with it and keep including consequentialism vs deontology in meta-ethics, just as I'll keep including moral luck in ethics.