I would be grateful if you can indulge my argument a bit further.
Maybe it’s because I’m coming from a computer science background, but I’m thinking of computation as much more basic than that.
I think I clumsily gave the impression that I deny such computation. I was referring to computations that generate value presuppositions. Of course the brain is computing in multiple levels, whether we are conscious of it or not. In addition there seems to be evidence, of what may be called, an emergent proto-morality in animals that, if true, is completely biologically determined. Things become more complex when we have to deal with higher, more elaborated, values.
I’ve read a bit through the meta ethics sequence and it seems to me to be an attempt to generate fundamental values through computation. If it was successful some kind of implementation would indicate it and/or some biological structure would be identified, so I would assume this is all speculative. I have to admit that I didn’t study the material in depth so please tell me if you have found that there are demonstrable results arising from it that I simply haven’t understood.
So to sum up:
Your view is that there is an objective morality that is shared and encoded in the DNA (parts of it are even mathematical equilibria, such as cooperation in IPD). They are also subjective because since they are computation they exists only insofar our minds compute them, and outside of the common nucleus they can vary depending on the culture / life experiences / contingencies / etc.
My view is that your proposition of a biological encoding may be correct up to a certain (basic) level but many values are transmitted through, to use your terminology, mimetic adaptation. These are objective in the sense that they approximate deeper objective principles that allow for survival and flourishing. Subjective ideas can be crafted on top of these values and these may prove beneficial or not.
I do not agree that our values are selected through memetic adaptation, or at least that’s only part of the story.
It seems to me that it is unquestionably part of the story. Play, as a built-in mimetic behaviour for transference of cultural schemas. Rituals and rites as part of all tribal societies. Stories as the means of transmiting values and as the basis of multiple (all?) civilisations including ours, so…
Am I missing something? What is the rational basis by which you choose to under emphasise the hypothesis regarding the cultural propagation through mimetic adaptation and stories?
I would be grateful if you can indulge my argument a bit further.
I think I clumsily gave the impression that I deny such computation. I was referring to computations that generate value presuppositions. Of course the brain is computing in multiple levels, whether we are conscious of it or not. In addition there seems to be evidence, of what may be called, an emergent proto-morality in animals that, if true, is completely biologically determined. Things become more complex when we have to deal with higher, more elaborated, values.
I’ve read a bit through the meta ethics sequence and it seems to me to be an attempt to generate fundamental values through computation. If it was successful some kind of implementation would indicate it and/or some biological structure would be identified, so I would assume this is all speculative. I have to admit that I didn’t study the material in depth so please tell me if you have found that there are demonstrable results arising from it that I simply haven’t understood.
So to sum up:
Your view is that there is an objective morality that is shared and encoded in the DNA (parts of it are even mathematical equilibria, such as cooperation in IPD). They are also subjective because since they are computation they exists only insofar our minds compute them, and outside of the common nucleus they can vary depending on the culture / life experiences / contingencies / etc.
My view is that your proposition of a biological encoding may be correct up to a certain (basic) level but many values are transmitted through, to use your terminology, mimetic adaptation. These are objective in the sense that they approximate deeper objective principles that allow for survival and flourishing. Subjective ideas can be crafted on top of these values and these may prove beneficial or not.
It seems to me that it is unquestionably part of the story. Play, as a built-in mimetic behaviour for transference of cultural schemas. Rituals and rites as part of all tribal societies. Stories as the means of transmiting values and as the basis of multiple (all?) civilisations including ours, so…
Am I missing something? What is the rational basis by which you choose to under emphasise the hypothesis regarding the cultural propagation through mimetic adaptation and stories?