Virge2 comments on The Bedrock of Morality: Arbitrary? - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 August 2008 10:00PM

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Comment author: Virge2 18 August 2008 02:17:00PM 0 points [-]

Kip Werking: "P2. But, all we have to prove that giving to charity, etc., is right, is that everyone thinks it is"

You're stating that there exists no other way to prove that giving to charity is right. That's an omniscient claim.

Still, it's unlikely to be defeated in the space of a comment thread, simply because your sweeping generalization about the goodness of charity is far from being universally accepted. A very general claim like that, with no concrete scenario, no background information on where it is to be applied, makes relativism a foregone conclusion.

I'd like to hear your arguments for something a little more fundamental. Would you apply the same reasoning to the goodness of life? Would you be prepared to claim that
"all we have to prove that your life is better than your death, is that everyone thinks it is"?

And with regard to the joy/sorrow question, would you be prepared to claim that
"all we have to prove that your not suffering is better than your suffering, is that everyone thinks it is"?