The reason it’s good to feel guilty is because it gives you a signal that you are the causal origin of a negative outcome.
Why are you assuming that the signal is correct?
I tend to think of guilt as pain feedback for breaking internalised norms. A lot of these norms are social or socially created. That does not make them automatically “right”.
Take a sincere Catholic girl who slept with some guy and is now feeling very very guilty about that. Is it good for her to feel guilty? What that guild “actually is, and what it’s for”? What should she do if she wants to “stop relying on vague intuitions and just always do what the intuitions we’re doing successfully half of the time”?
Damn, I had considered using the word ‘useful’, but I used ‘good’ instead, so that I could avoid flak from the other guy! Of course signals can be ‘incorrect’, in a sense.
I admit that I didn’t consider this the sort of advice that sincere Catholic girls with really conservative beliefs about sexuality would read. I am assuming a certain level of background knowledge here. If I have made an error in that regard, then I bear responsibility for it. (Heh.)
Not even. I’m assuming that her ontology for anything but the most immediate, important, tangible things would be practically useless. You can generate and possess an accurate world-model with a botched morality, but you’re very unlikely to commit the moral action if the values are spot on but the world-model and its generator are botched. You should begin with ontology and epistemology and then move on to ethics.
Ironically, I actually talked about not feeling guilty, as opposed to feeling guilty, in the article above. But that probably wouldn’t be helpful for someone like that either, even if it seems like it superficially would be in your thought experiment.
I’m assuming that her ontology for anything but the most immediate, important, tangible things would be practically useless.
In which sense useless? She’s a contemporary, educated girl, she can navigate this world perfectly well and you probably won’t disagree with her about much in the descriptive sphere. What you would disagree about is the normative sphere, but that doesn’t have to do much with ontology. Why do you assume that her “world-model” is botched? There are plenty of very bright religious people.
Why are you assuming that the signal is correct?
I tend to think of guilt as pain feedback for breaking internalised norms. A lot of these norms are social or socially created. That does not make them automatically “right”.
Take a sincere Catholic girl who slept with some guy and is now feeling very very guilty about that. Is it good for her to feel guilty? What that guild “actually is, and what it’s for”? What should she do if she wants to “stop relying on vague intuitions and just always do what the intuitions we’re doing successfully half of the time”?
Damn, I had considered using the word ‘useful’, but I used ‘good’ instead, so that I could avoid flak from the other guy! Of course signals can be ‘incorrect’, in a sense.
I admit that I didn’t consider this the sort of advice that sincere Catholic girls with really conservative beliefs about sexuality would read. I am assuming a certain level of background knowledge here. If I have made an error in that regard, then I bear responsibility for it. (Heh.)
Knowledge? Our sincere Catholic girl is very knowledgeable. Perhaps you mean that your advice applies only to people with the “correct” moral systems?
Not even. I’m assuming that her ontology for anything but the most immediate, important, tangible things would be practically useless. You can generate and possess an accurate world-model with a botched morality, but you’re very unlikely to commit the moral action if the values are spot on but the world-model and its generator are botched. You should begin with ontology and epistemology and then move on to ethics.
Ironically, I actually talked about not feeling guilty, as opposed to feeling guilty, in the article above. But that probably wouldn’t be helpful for someone like that either, even if it seems like it superficially would be in your thought experiment.
In which sense useless? She’s a contemporary, educated girl, she can navigate this world perfectly well and you probably won’t disagree with her about much in the descriptive sphere. What you would disagree about is the normative sphere, but that doesn’t have to do much with ontology. Why do you assume that her “world-model” is botched? There are plenty of very bright religious people.