= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
peter_hurford comments on Why Eat Less Meat? - LessWrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (513)
I'm confused as to what those considerations are supposed to demonstrate.
Basically, I don't think much of your counterargument because it's unimaginative. If you ask the question of what morality is good for, you find a significant number of plausible answers, and different moralities satisfy those values to different degrees. If you can't identify what practical values are encouraged by holding a particular moral principle, what argument do you have for that moral principle besides that you currently hold it?
I don't think moral principles are validated with reference to practical self-interested considerations.
What do you think moral principles are validated by?
Or, to ask a more general question, what they could possibly be validated by?
Broadly, I think moral principles exist as logical standards by wish actions can be measured. It's a fact whether a particular action is endorsed by utilitarianism or deontology, etc. Therefore moral facts exist in the same realm as any other sort of fact.
More specifically, I think the actual set of moral principles someone lives by are a personal choice that is subject to a lot of factors. Some of it might be self-interest, but even if it is, it's usually indirect, not overt.
OK. But standards are not facts. They are metrics in the same way that a unit of length, say, meter, is not a fact but a metric.
How do you validate the choice of meters (and not, say, yards) to measure?
The usual answer is "fitness for a purpose", but how does this work for morality?
True. But whether something meets a standard is a fact. While a meter is a standard, it's an objective fact that my height is approximately 1.85 meters.
~
Social consensus. Also, a meter is much easier to use than a yard.
~
Standards could be evaluated on further desiderata, like internal consistency and robustness in the face of thought experiments.
Social consensus and ease of use could also be factors.
I agree. You can state as a fact whether some action meets some standard of morality. That does nothing to validate a standard of morality, however.
Oh, boy. Social consensus, ease of use, really?
I'm not sure a standard of morality could ever be validated in the way you might like.
What do you think validates a standard of morality?
~
That's not a very helpful retort.
Nothing, pretty much. I think standards of morality cannot be validated.
I don't know if you think your position is defensible or it was just a throwaway line. It's rather trivial to construct a bunch of moralities which will pass your validation criteria and look pretty awful at the same time.
It seems to me things like social consensus and ease of use are factors in determining whether a morality is popular, but I don't see how they can validate moral values.