DanArmak comments on Philosophy professors fail on basic philosophy problems - Less Wrong

16 Post author: shminux 15 July 2015 06:41PM

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Comment author: DanArmak 17 July 2015 09:09:37PM 0 points [-]

because even I myself can do better.

Under the same conditions? Has that been tested?

It hasn't been tested, but I'm reasonably confident in my prediction. Because, if I were answering moral dilemmas, and explicitly reasoning in far mode, I would try to follow some kind of formal system, where presentation doesn't matter, and where answers can be checked for correctness.

Granted, I would need some time to prepare such a system, to practice with it. And I'm well aware that all actually proposed formal moral systems go against moral intuitions in some cases. So my claim to counterfactually be a better moral philosopher is really quite contingent.

Scientists have been shown to have failings of their own, under similarly artificial conditions. Are you going to to reject scientists, because of their individual untrustworthiness...or trust the system?

Other sciences deal with human fallibility by having an objective standard of truth against which individual beliefs can be measured. Mathematical theories have formal proofs, and with enough effort the proofs can even be machine-checked. Physical, etc. theories produce empirical predictions that can be independently verified. What is the equivalent in moral philosophy?