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Alejandro1 comments on Open Thread, April 27-May 4, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

0 Post author: NancyLebovitz 27 April 2014 08:34PM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 28 April 2014 04:10:15PM *  2 points [-]

Poll: Consequentialism and the motive for holding true beliefs


1. Is an action's moral status (rightness or wrongness) dictated solely by its consequences?

Strong Yes Strong No

(For calibration — I would expect people who identify strongly as consequentialists to answer "strong yes" on question 1, while people who identify strongly as deontologists to answer "strong no", while people who are somewhere in between would choose one of the middle buttons based on how they lean.)


2. Is the truth value (truth or falsity) of a belief about the world dictated solely by its predictive value?

Strong Yes Strong No

(By "belief about the world" I explicitly mean to bracket beliefs about, for instance, mathematical formalisms.)


3. Is possessing the truth an end in itself; as opposed to being valuable for instrumental reasons, for instance that true beliefs equip us to choose our actions better?

Yes, truth is an end in itself No, truth is for instrumental reasons


4. Do you expect that — all else being equal — a person equipped with more true beliefs and fewer false ones is more likely to accomplish that person's goals or intentions?

Strong Yes Strong No


5. Do you expect that — all else being equal — a person equipped with more true beliefs and fewer false ones is more likely to take actions that are more morally right and less morally wrong?

Strong Yes Strong No

Submitting...

Comment author: Alejandro1 28 April 2014 04:16:21PM 4 points [-]

In question 1, is "consequences" supposed to mean "actual consequences", "expected consequences", "foreseeable consequences"…?

Comment author: fubarobfusco 28 April 2014 04:48:50PM 0 points [-]

Any of the above.