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Lumifer comments on Ethics in a Feedback Loop: A Parable - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: PeerGynt 25 July 2014 04:25PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 26 July 2014 01:22:08AM 3 points [-]

I believe there exists an objective moral standard which is part of the territory. ... Obviously, we are unable to know whether our ethical maps correspond to the ethical territory.

Hold on. You're saying that there's objective morality but it's unknowable in principle? Then on what basis do you believe it exists and why would its existence even matter?

If we don't believe there is such a thing as an objective ethical standard ... then I fail to see the point in even discussing ethics.

Even if you think that ethics are a semi-arbitrary social construct, they are very useful for human societies and so worth discussing.

Comment author: PeerGynt 26 July 2014 01:33:56AM *  0 points [-]

Fair point - I should have phrased that differently. I think I intended that both in the weak sense "Our prior on moral statements should never be 0 or 1" and also in the slightly stronger sense "Ethics is difficult, so our priors should have high variance"

Comment author: Lumifer 26 July 2014 01:46:59AM 2 points [-]

The problem isn't so much with priors, the problem is what are you willing to accept as evidence to be used for updating your beliefs.

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