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Gram_Stone comments on My Kind of Moral Responsibility - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: Gram_Stone 02 May 2016 05:54AM

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Comment author: Gram_Stone 02 May 2016 06:07:37PM 1 point [-]

In terms of guilt, finding little tricks to rid yourself of guilt for various things probably isn't a good way to make you continue caring and doing as much as you can for a certain issue. I can know that something is wrong, but if I don't feel guilty about doing nothing, I'm probably not going to exert myself as hard in trying to fix it. If I can tell myself "I didn't do it, therefore it's none of my concern, even though it is technically a bad thing" and absolve myself of guilt, it's simply going to make me less likely to do anything about the issue.

Ah, I assumed the guilt would demotivate on net. Maybe it depends on how strongly you identify with utilitarian ideas.