This is very well put, and I think it drives at the heart of the matter very cleanly. It also jives with my own (limited) observations and half-formed ideas about how AI alignment also in some ways demands progress in ethical philosophy towards a genuinely universal and more empirical system of ethics.
Also, have you read C.S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man, by chance? I am put strongly in mind of what he called the “Tao”, a systematic (and universal) moral law of sorts, with some very interesting desiderata, such as being potentially tractable to empirical (or at least intersubjective) investigation, and having a (to my mind) fairly logical idea of how moral development could take place through such a system. It appears to me to be a decent outline of how your naturalized moral epistemology could be cashed out (though not necessarily the only way).
This is very well put, and I think it drives at the heart of the matter very cleanly. It also jives with my own (limited) observations and half-formed ideas about how AI alignment also in some ways demands progress in ethical philosophy towards a genuinely universal and more empirical system of ethics.
Also, have you read C.S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man, by chance? I am put strongly in mind of what he called the “Tao”, a systematic (and universal) moral law of sorts, with some very interesting desiderata, such as being potentially tractable to empirical (or at least intersubjective) investigation, and having a (to my mind) fairly logical idea of how moral development could take place through such a system. It appears to me to be a decent outline of how your naturalized moral epistemology could be cashed out (though not necessarily the only way).