My ethics are, as many commented their were in the original thread, not supported by logic. And I don’t mean in an unconsidered way. Morality does not come from outside me. My “morality” is a reflection of my desires. It is not pure pleasure seeking because my desires have a longer time-view than that.
How could this ever be disproved? It is not proved in the first place. I was raised Catholic and so experienced strong claims for a right and wrong that exist outside of me. On reflection, I have largely innoculated myself against believing any claims like that, and yet I do keep looking and wondering. I mention this since the one “disproof” of my ethics I can imagine is to be shown something that leads me to believe there is a creditable source of morality outside my own desires.
Eliezer seems to equate proving all utilities are equal (or 0) with disproving all moralities. I can not easily imagine finding the same utility in receiving oral sex from a healthy loving partner as I find in putting my healthy useful hand in a running blender on a whim.
So saying “yes, I would still tip cabdrivers” seems a little dishonest. I would still tip cabdrivers because I would want to, which means I would find more utility in it than in NOT tipping cabdrivers, so I would have failed to perform the axiomatic steps.
I suppose if I do perform the axiomatic steps, if there were no morality in the sense that all utilities were equal, I would be dead, or more probably would never have been alive. Life does not survive without utility, probably all life, certainly chordata.
And I would certainly still read overcomingbias.com since that is already immoral, I should be working instead.
My ethics are, as many commented their were in the original thread, not supported by logic. And I don’t mean in an unconsidered way. Morality does not come from outside me. My “morality” is a reflection of my desires. It is not pure pleasure seeking because my desires have a longer time-view than that.
How could this ever be disproved? It is not proved in the first place. I was raised Catholic and so experienced strong claims for a right and wrong that exist outside of me. On reflection, I have largely innoculated myself against believing any claims like that, and yet I do keep looking and wondering. I mention this since the one “disproof” of my ethics I can imagine is to be shown something that leads me to believe there is a creditable source of morality outside my own desires.
Eliezer seems to equate proving all utilities are equal (or 0) with disproving all moralities. I can not easily imagine finding the same utility in receiving oral sex from a healthy loving partner as I find in putting my healthy useful hand in a running blender on a whim.
So saying “yes, I would still tip cabdrivers” seems a little dishonest. I would still tip cabdrivers because I would want to, which means I would find more utility in it than in NOT tipping cabdrivers, so I would have failed to perform the axiomatic steps.
I suppose if I do perform the axiomatic steps, if there were no morality in the sense that all utilities were equal, I would be dead, or more probably would never have been alive. Life does not survive without utility, probably all life, certainly chordata.
And I would certainly still read overcomingbias.com since that is already immoral, I should be working instead.