I'm >.9 confident that EY would agree that with you that, supposing we do inherently value well-being and cooperation, we would not if we had not evolved to do so.
I'm >.8 confident that EY would also say that valuing well-being and cooperation (in addition to other things, some of which might be more important) is right, or perhaps right, and not just "h-right".
For my own part, I think "inherently" is a problematic word here. A sufficiently sophisticated paperclip maximizer would agree that cooperation is a Good Move, in that it can be used to increase the rate of paperclip production. I agree that cooperation is a Good Move in roughly the same way.
I agree that EY would say both those things. I did not mean to contradict either in my comment.
A sufficiently sophisticated paperclip maximizer would agree that cooperation is a Good Move, in that it can be used to increase the rate of paperclip production. I agree that cooperation is a Good Move in roughly the same way.
That is part of what I was trying to convey with the word 'inherently'. The other part is that I think EY would say that humans do value some forms of cooperation, such as friendship, inherently, in addition to their instrumental value. I am, however, a bit less confident of that than of the things I have said about EY's metaethical views.
Today's post, The Bedrock of Morality: Arbitrary? was originally published on 14 August 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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