Caledonian2 comments on Is Morality Given? - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 July 2008 08:12AM

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Comment author: Caledonian2 07 July 2008 01:59:00PM 0 points [-]

Still doesn't tell us what 'moral' means. We've just changed the category we stick that label on. What defines 'moral emotions'? Is it an arbitrary grouping, or do we use the label to refer to certain properties that things in that grouping possess? People seem to use the term in the latter way - so what properties are they?

Basic scientific methodology - you can't study what you can't produce a provisional definition for. Once you have that, you can learn more about what's defined, but you don't get anywhere without that starting point.