kybernetikos comments on On Terminal Goals and Virtue Ethics - LessWrong

67 Post author: Swimmer963 18 June 2014 04:00AM

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Comment author: kybernetikos 18 June 2014 11:12:47PM 4 points [-]

That's very interesting, but isn't the level-1 thinking closer to deontological ethics than virtue ethics, since it is based on rules rather than on the character of the moral agent?

Comment author: Ruby 19 June 2014 10:21:38AM *  3 points [-]

My understanding is that when Hare says rules or principles for level-1 he means it generically and is agnostic about what form they'd take. "Always be kind" is also a rule. For clarity, I'd substitute the word 'algorithm' for 'rules'/'principles'. Your level-2 algorithm is consequentialism, but then your level-1 algorithm is whatever happens to consequentially work best - be it inviolable deontological rules, character-based virtue ethics, or something else.

Comment author: ialdabaoth 18 June 2014 11:52:10PM 1 point [-]

level-1 thinking is actually based on habit and instinct more than rules; rules are just a way to describe habit and instinct.

Comment author: Ruby 19 June 2014 10:25:50AM 1 point [-]

Level-1 is about rules which your habit and instinct can follow, but I wouldn't say they're ways to describe it. Here we're talking about normative rules, not descriptive System 1/System 2 stuff.

Comment author: kybernetikos 19 June 2014 12:08:31AM 1 point [-]

And the Archangel has decided to take some general principles (which are rules) and implant them in the habit and instinct of the children. I suppose you could argue that the system implanted is a deontological one from the Archangels point of view, and merely instinctual behaviour from the childrens point of view. I'd still feel that calling instinctual behaviour 'virtue ethics' is a bit strange.

Comment author: ialdabaoth 19 June 2014 12:14:04AM *  0 points [-]

not quite. The initial instincts are the system-1 "presets". These can and do change with time. A particular entity's current system-1 behavior are its "habits".