Stuart_Armstrong comments on Ethical Inhibitions - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 October 2008 08:44PM

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Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 20 October 2008 02:01:50PM 0 points [-]

Eliezer: if the "ethical override" differs from culture to culture, and some people don't even have it, what's universal about it?

On cultural difference, it still is an advantage to have a sense of shame/proper conduct that can then be moulded to the culture's norms (see my previous comment). The sense of shame might be universal, even if the contents of the ethic is different.

As for "some people don't even have it", this is not a complete counter-argument - there might be an evolutionary optimal equilibrium of sociopaths to non-sociopaths.