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ArisKatsaris comments on On private marriage contracts - Less Wrong Discussion

8 [deleted] 12 January 2013 02:53PM

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Comment author: ArisKatsaris 12 January 2013 06:10:56PM *  17 points [-]

Do I even need to make a list of horrible amorality by "democratic republics"?

I don't think you're talking about the same thing as fubarobfusco. When fubarobfusco speaks about democratic republics not being "amoral", I think he means that they're not "utterly disinterested in the concept of morality". Which indeed they're not: e.g. they partially care about the will of their voters, and the voters are partially interested in morality.

When you speak about amorality, I think you're referring to how democratic republics often fall short or don't really care about their supposed or proclaimed values. So that in practice their behaviour isn't particularly moral.

I don't think you two are necessarily in disagreement, I think you're just using "amoral" in a different sense.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 12 January 2013 06:32:51PM *  0 points [-]

Yes, pretty much. Republics are not good at morality but they are not uncaring, either.

EDIT: I have difficulty taking Konkvistador's comment as anything but a joke, because I specified what I meant by "not amoral", namely "it has moral (or moral-like) objections to some contract terms". I should probably clarify what counts as "moral-like objections": ones grounded on consequential, deontological, or virtue premises, e.g.:

  • "We don't enforce that contract term because doing so would cause harm."
    • "... to the contracting parties."
    • "... to society at large."
  • "We don't enforce that contract term because we're obligated not to."
    • "... because it would violate someone's rights."
    • "... because we couldn't do so without exceeding our legitimate authority."
  • "We don't enforce that contract term because good people wouldn't do that."
    • "... because it would reward bad behavior."
    • "... because doing so would make us like the Bad Example People."
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