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VAuroch comments on Be comfortable with hypocrisy - Less Wrong Discussion

32 Post author: The_Duck 08 April 2014 10:03AM

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Comment author: VAuroch 09 April 2014 03:20:53AM 3 points [-]

Acting according to your values is a virtue, but pretending to have no nontrivial values is cheating (or perhaps admitting to psychopathy if that really happens to be true).

I don't think that's true. I think this because I am pretty clearly not a psychopath (I've checked), and consciously decided to have no nontrivial moral values a year or two back. I had a mild anxiety disorder and was feeling constantly guilty, and as part of dealing with that I threw out all explicit moral codes.

I have more or less held to this standard; I do good things for people, when it is easy for me to do so (reputational benefits are real), or for people I like. I don't commit crime because I don't think the benefits are worth the risks; if I thought I had an excellent chance of getting away with it for a reward I found particularly appealing, and it wasn't hurting anyone I liked, I probably would. In the non-iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, I defect every time. In the iterated Dilemma, though, that's just stupid.