Caledonian2 comments on Could Anything Be Right? - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 18 July 2008 07:19AM

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Comment author: Caledonian2 18 July 2008 10:11:43PM 2 points [-]

Suffice it to say that something's being in our DNA is neither sufficient nor necessary for it to be moral.

Agreed - but what IS sufficient and necessary?

'Moral' is just a word. It's a pointer we used to refer to a concept without having to transfer the whole thing every time we wish to communicate about it. What is the concept the word points to? You have to be able to answer that question before you can pose any further questions. Without knowing that, you can't speak intelligently about the concept at all.