To those who say "Nothing is real," I once replied, "That's great, but how does the nothing work?"
Suppose you learned, suddenly and definitively, that nothing is moral and nothing is right; that everything is permissible and nothing is forbidden.
Devastating news, to be sure—and no, I am not telling you this in real life. But suppose I did tell it to you. Suppose that, whatever you think is the basis of your moral philosophy, I convincingly tore it apart, and moreover showed you that nothing could fill its place. Suppose I proved that all utilities equaled zero.
I know that Your-Moral-Philosophy is as true and undisprovable as 2 + 2 = 4. But still, I ask that you do your best to perform the thought experiment, and concretely envision the possibilities even if they seem painful, or pointless, or logically incapable of any good reply.
Would you still tip cabdrivers? Would you cheat on your Significant Other? If a child lay fainted on the train tracks, would you still drag them off?
Would you still eat the same kinds of foods—or would you only eat the cheapest food, since there's no reason you should have fun—or would you eat very expensive food, since there's no reason you should save money for tomorrow?
Would you wear black and write gloomy poetry and denounce all altruists as fools? But there's no reason you should do that—it's just a cached thought.
Would you stay in bed because there was no reason to get up? What about when you finally got hungry and stumbled into the kitchen—what would you do after you were done eating?
Would you go on reading Overcoming Bias, and if not, what would you read instead? Would you still try to be rational, and if not, what would you think instead?
Close your eyes, take as long as necessary to answer:
What would you do, if nothing were right?
I'm still trying to understand what Eliezer really means by this question. Here is a list of a few reasons why I don't kill the annoying kid across the street. Which of these reasons might disappear upon my being shown this proof?
1. The kid and his friends and family would suffer, and since I don't enjoy suffering myself, my ability to empathise stops me wanting to.
2. I would probably be arrested and jailed, which doesn't fit in with my plans.
3. I have an emotional reaction to the idea of killing a kid (in such circumstances -- though I'm not actually sure that this disclaimer is necessary): it fills me with such revulsion that I doubt I would actually be able to carry out the task. My emotions would prevent my body working properly.
4. I recognise that the kid is not causing very much harm to me. It seems fair to cause little harm to him in return.
5. My family and friends might suffer because they might imagine they could have prevented my doing this and failed to (guilt, I suppose is the word); see 1, also this reaction is even stronger because I have vested interests in my friends and family not suffering.
6. I myself would suffer guilt as a result of 1, 3 and 4, and I don't enjoy suffering.
I suppose 2 wouldn't change, because "it all adds up to normality" (although, as I said in my last comment, I don't think this could add up to normality; hence my trying to understand the question better), so other people's actions would not be altered. It would be something in me that changed: a new understanding that affected my value judgements. What would it affect? The fact that I don't like suffering, which would take out 1 and 6? My ability to empathise, taking out 1 and 5? My emotional reactions, taking out 3 and possibly 6? My ability to judge what is fair and what is unfair -- or the fact that I care about acting fairly -- taking out 4?
Perhaps all I've done here is attempt to Taboo the concept of morality for one particular case. Saying "it's immoral to kill the kid" suggests that the concept of morality not really existing makes sense. My list reveals that I, at least, can't make sense of it. I'm still confused as to what the question really means.