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torekp comments on Questions for Moral Realists - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: peter_hurford 13 February 2013 05:44AM

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Comment author: torekp 20 February 2013 01:17:00AM 0 points [-]

I doubt that much hangs what people's meta-ethical intuitions are. Compare, for example, the issue of what people's theory of the nature of "gold" is. If people generally think that gold is what it is because the gods have mixed their aura into it, still, what gold actually is depends only on what explains the features whereby we recognize it. That explanans still comes down to its having atomic number 79 - gods be damned. And, to boot, the religious theorists of Aurum might claim to high heaven that without its divine connection, gold would be worthless. But I doubt you'd find much jewelry in the trash can after they switch theories. Similarly, I don't think a switch from divine-command to rational-agreement metaethics will result in trashing morality.