The problem with what Elizier says there is making it compatible with his reason for being moral. For example:
"And once you realize that the brain can't multiply by eight, then the other cases of scope neglect stop seeming to reveal some fundamental truth about 50,000 lives being worth just the same effort as 5,000 lives, or whatever. You don't get the impression you're looking at the revelation of a deep moral truth about nonagglomerative utilities. It's just that the brain doesn't goddamn multiply. Quantities get thrown out the window."
However, Elizier's comments on "The Pebblesorters" amongst others make clear that he defines morality based on what humans feel is moral. How is this compatible?
In addition, given that the morality in the Metaethics is fundamentally based on preferences, there are severe problems. Take Hypothetical case A, which is broad enough to cover a lot of plausible scenarios.
A- A hypothetical case where there is an option which will be the best from a consequentialist perspective, but which for some reason the person who takes the option would feel overall more guilty for choosing it AND be less happy aftewards than the alternative, both in the short run and the long run.
Elizier would say to take the action that is best from a consequentialist perspective. This is indefensible however you look at it- logically, philsophically, etc.
Ok, I can see why you read the Pebblesorters parable and concluded that on Eliezer's view, morality comes from human feelings and intuitions alone. The Pebblesorters are not very reflective or deliberative (although there's that one episode where a Pebblesorter makes a persuasive moral argument by demonstrating that a number is composite.) But I think you'll find that it's also compatible with the position that morality comes from human feelings and intuitions, as well as intuitions about how to reconcile conflicting intuitions and intuitions about the rol...
My apologies if this doesn't deserve a Discussion post, but if this hasn't been addresed anywhere than it's clearly an important issue.
There have been many defences of consequentialism against deontology, including quite a few on this site. What I haven't seen, however, is any demonstration of how deontology is incompatible with the ideas in Elizier's Metaethics sequence- as far as I can tell, a deontologist could agree with just about everything in the Sequences.
Said deontologist would argue that, to the extent a human universial morality can exist through generalised moral instincts, said instincts tend to be deontological (as supported through scientific studies- a study of the trolley dilemna v.s the 'fat man' variant showed that people would divert the trolley but not push the fat man). This would be their argument against the consequentialist, who they could accuse of wanting a consequentialist system and ignoring the moral instincts at the basis of their own speculations.
I'm not completely sure about this, but figure it an important enough misunderstanding if I indeed misunderstood to deserve clearing up.