Kawoomba comments on No Universally Compelling Arguments in Math or Science - Less Wrong

30 Post author: ChrisHallquist 05 November 2013 03:32AM

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Comment author: pragmatist 06 November 2013 11:35:44PM *  2 points [-]

But that's a universal defense of any free-floating belief.

Well, no, because most beliefs don't have the properties I attributed to moral beiefs ("...central feature of my practical theory of the world... moral inferences are extremely intuitive to me..."), so I couldn't offer the same defense, at least not honestly. And again, I'm not trying to convince you to be a moral realist here, I'm explaining why I'm a moral realist, and why I think it's reasonable for me to be one.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean when you refer to my moral beliefs as "free-floating". If you mean they have no connection to my non-moral beliefs then the characterization is inapt. My moral beliefs are definitely shaped by my beliefs about what the world is like. I also believe moral truths supervene on non-moral truths. You couldn't have a universe where all the non-moral facts were the same as this one but the moral facts were different. So not free-floating, I think.

For that matter: do you really think the degrees of justification for the rules of induction are similar to those of your moral beliefs?

Not sure what you mean by "degree of justification" here.