= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Boyi comments on Ends Don't Justify Means (Among Humans) - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (87)
Thanks for the clarification of the corrupted hardware analogy. It was a poor choice of words to compare the argument to human nature being evil. The point I am trying to make is that I do not agree with the statement t hat human nature is flawed. What you are calling flawed I was calling evil. But from this point on I will switch to your language because it is better. I still do not see the logic
-In some cases, human beings have evolved in such fashion as to think that they are doing X for prosocial reason Y, but when human beings actually do X, other adaptations execute to promote self-benefiting consequence.
As proving that human nature is flawed, because it makes the assumption that self-interest is a flaw. I would ask you two questions if I could. First, do you believe self-interest to be a flaw of human nature, if not what is the flaw that is talked about in corrupt hardware? Second, do you believe it is possible to posses a conscious without self-interest?
I would add that just because I support self-interest, does not mean I support selfishness. Please respond!
No, again you're not following the precise lines. An adaptation doesn't necessarily benefit one's 'self': it's supposed to help one's genes or one's genes in another person (or even just a gene at the expense of all the others). Kin selection, right? Fisher's famous "I would not sacrifice myself to save a brother, but would for 2 brothers, 4 cousins...'
So again, this corrupted hardware business is not identical with selfishness or self-interest, however you seem to be using either.
So you are saying the hardware of genes that has fueled the movement of life, and must embryologically exist within the human structure, is a hinderance to the structure of the social animal?
Genes give rise to the sociality in the first place; this is one of the paradoxes of trying to fight one's genes, as it were. It's hairy meta-ethics: where do your desires and morals come from and what justifies them?
I don't think morality should be segregated from desire. I realize that Freud's concept of drives is at this point in time obsolete, but if there were "drives" it would not be a sex, aggression, or hunger drive that dominated the human animal, but a belonging drive. In my opinion it does not matter where the hardware comes from, what is important is an intimacy with its function. I think for too long there has been a false dichotomy constructed between morals and desires.
as to the question of meta-ethics, I would apply the works of E. O Wilson or Joseph Tainter to the construction of a more humane humanity.