Toby_Ord2 comments on The Meaning of Right - Less Wrong

30 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 July 2008 01:28AM

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Comment author: Toby_Ord2 30 July 2008 11:53:00PM 0 points [-]

To cover cases where people are making judgments about what others should do, I could also extend this summary in a slightly more cumbersome way:

When X judges that Y should Z, X is judging that were she fully informed, she would want Y to Z

This allows X to be incorrect in her judgments (if she wouldn't want Y to Z when given full information). It allows for others to try to persuade X that her judgment is incorrect (it preserves a role for moral argument). It reduces 'should' to mere want (which is arguably simpler). It is, however, a conception of should that is judger-dependent: it could be the case that X correctly judges that Y should Z, while W correctly judges that Y should not Z.