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Kyrorh comments on Ethicality of Denying Agency - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: pwno 07 July 2014 05:40AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 07 July 2014 02:57:03PM 3 points [-]

While both the child and the mother might have the same class of agency with respect to the object level decision, they have different classes of meta level agency, that is agency about their decision how they want to choose and what kind of person they want to be. While the child does not have that agency and therefore needs to be not only protected from false decisions but also raised to that meta level agency, the mother does and therefore the decision of the son to not tell her about being drunk interfere with that meta level agency, i.e. her right to take responsibility for her own life unless the son knows that she would want to be a rational person in which case his choice does not infringe on her agency.

Comment author: MugaSofer 07 July 2014 05:59:43PM 1 point [-]

While both the child and the mother might have the same class of agency with respect to the object level decision, they have different classes of meta level agency, that is agency about their decision how they want to choose and what kind of person they want to be.

I cannot parse this.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 07 July 2014 06:13:58PM 4 points [-]

They both know what their preferences are, but the child isn't fully equipped to choose better preferences.

Comment author: MugaSofer 10 July 2014 09:08:21PM 1 point [-]

Thanks!

Comment author: MugaSofer 10 July 2014 09:10:02PM 1 point [-]

Hmm.

Does the average human, in all their heuristics and biases and irrationality, actually have enough "meta-level agency" at all times?