gothgirl420666 comments on Dangers of steelmanning / principle of charity - Less Wrong

88 Post author: gothgirl420666 16 January 2014 06:35AM

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Comment author: Nornagest 14 January 2014 09:48:44PM *  1 point [-]

IANAR, but "fundamentalist" connotes strong deontological beliefs to me, and in particular a stance wherein anything violating some established creed X is definitionally considered evil. That tends to imply at least self-perceived reaction within religious contexts, since most religions' moral contents were developed relative to mores at the times and places of their founding; also because many religions include doctrine describing some sort of lost golden age. But the reverse doesn't seem to be true: we can imagine wanting to rewind parts of society to some prior state on strictly consequentialist grounds, without invoking any particular deontology.

(Indeed, given the amount of variation over time it would be surprising if there weren't historical situations we'd prefer, unless we believe in some sort of ethical teleology or an Yvain-style deal where the ethical sophistication we can get away with supporting scales with technical capability, at least in agrarian/industrial societies. I find the latter somewhat convincing, myself.)