Knowledge does not require certainty. But nor does justified true belief suffice.
Psychological egoism is false: it is possible to act from non-selfish desires, i.e. for some good other than your own welfare.
Rational egoism is false: we are not rationally required to always and only act in our own self-interest.
(E.g. Moral) Principles may take situational variables into account without thereby sacrificing their claim to objectivity.
The question whether God actually exists is independent of the question whether there is genuine normativity (“ought”-ness).
Valuing tolerance needn’t lead one to moral relativism. (Quite the opposite.)
Red herrings may (and black ravens may not) constitute evidence that all ravens are black.
It’s not analytic (true by definition) that cats are animals. But it is metaphysically necessary: there is no possible world containing a cat that is not an animal.
Slightly more controversial:
“Common-sense” morality, with its agent-relative ends, is self-defeating.
Capitalism is not intrinsically just. (Libertarianism must be defended on consequentialist grounds, if any. Those who think otherwise are confused about the nature of property and coercion.)
It is possible for desires (or ultimate ends) to be irrational. So there is more to rationality than just instrumental rationality.
One may be harmed by events that took place prior to their coming into existence.
It’s as though there were a separate subfield of mathematics devoted entirely to proposing axioms and definitions, and someone was defending that subfield against criticisms that it doesn’t produce “results” simply by listing some of the definitions that have become standard.
Of course definitions are important, but this kind of exercise seems futile.
Number 8 is a case in point. It may as well simply state “Kripke’s theory of alethic modal operators and natural kinds has become standard”. Which is true, and Kripke’s theory is interesting in many ways, but sometimes it’s more of a hindrance than a help: There’s this theory of “2 dimensional semantics” whose entire purpose (as far as I can tell) is to allow philosophers to pay lip service to Kripke’s theory while ignoring it in practice.
(To fit the pieces together, follow the link above, substituting “cats” for “water” and “animals” for “H2O”; and also read Richard Chappell’s post.)
Thanks for posting my list! Looking back, I think the third “more controversial” one (about the irrationality of some ultimate desires, e.g. Future Tuesday Indifference) probably doesn’t belong on the list. I do think it is very interesting and probably true, but that’s a different matter.
It’s not analytic (true by definition) that cats are animals. But it is metaphysically necessary: there is no possible world containing a cat that is not an animal.
I disagree with this. First, to make sure I know what you mean, you’re basically saying that “that cat-like thing I see” is not, by definition, a cat. If we took a full description of a cat’s biology to be the definition then it would be an animal by definition. Did I get all that right?
I don’t think it’s possible to prove a statement to be synthetic (the opposite of analytic—do LessWrongians know these words?) unless you prove that there is no possible way to show something by definition. In this case, it seems that we have just failed to show that the statement was analytic rather than proving it to be synthetic.
I’m not sure I follow your objection. In natural language, the meaning of ‘cat’ is fixed by ostention, not descriptive stipulation. We (most of us, at least) mean something like “that cat-like thing I see”. If it turns out that the cat-like creatures of our worlds are cleverly disguised robots, rather than animals, we would conclude that cats are robots, not that our world contains no cats. Hence the meaning of our word ‘cat’ does not include their animality.
You could, of course, introduce a new term ‘shcat’ which you stipulate means “cat-like animal”. So then the situation I’ve described above would be one in which we learn that our world contains no shcats. But the English word ‘cat’ does not function like this. And the interesting Kripkean point is just that we can (and often do) define words by ostension, which can then display this interesting behaviour of featuring in claims that are metaphysically necessary but not analytic. That is: it’s the possibility of such a distinction, rather than any particular instance of it, which is the really interesting thing here.
I agree with this. I do not know much about the philosophy of language, so I did not know that this was the consensus on the definitions of words like ‘cat’.
I am not sure that there is a possible distinction in this case. It is metaphysically necessary that cats are necessary, but we have not proved it to be synthetic.
I would take such a list with care. The author claims that the only disagreements on such points come from grossly confused people, which he compares to creationists. Being a grad student at Princeton is a solid credential, but not enough that I would take him at face value while he advances as “settled” propositions that he needed to defend, and not simply present, on his blog.
(Disclosure: I find at least two of his defences of the statements above to be unconvincing, so I am pretty biased against him; at the same time, while I am certainly spottily educated on the subject, I still put enough weight on my own judgment and on the nature of my disagreements that I’m not going to adopt the assumption that I am the confused one.)
Nr. 3 (he hinges it on an rather unconvincing argument that time displacement—i.e. caring for your future self—is comparable to agent displacement—i.e. caring for someone else) and Nr. 5 (the argument is fine, but he’s arguing against what I consider a strawman - it’s not that without God morality disappears from the hyperuranian realm, it’s that it loses a universal judge-enforcer which has some pretty harsh implications, especially for a materialist).
I don’t think it’s a strawman. When you corner a theist on this point, she will often claim that god provides objective morality regardless of the existence of hell (or other punishments). They really are claiming that without God, morality disappears—hence the relativists can’t justify anything schtick. And hence the standard non-answer to the Euthyphro dilemma, as opposed to simply admitting, “Yes, it’s above him but he enforces it.”
Oh. But aren’t we more interested in whether there’s morality in the hypouranian realm? Below the heavens, rather than above? I mean, imagine a theist (maybe it had better be a deist) who believes that God exists and determines moral values—but only for other gods. If convinced that God doesn’t exist after all, she might feel that morality had disappeared from the hyperuranian realm, but why would she care?
Hyperuranian realm = the world of ideas, as opposed to the world of physical matter. The proposition that blogger is attacking is that, without God, morality would lose its value as a concept. Quote:
it’s daft to think that God’s existence is necessary to ground normative ideals, because the whole point of ideals is that they float free from the mess of our actual reality.
A pattern in philosophy is that once a problem is solved, it often seems obvious and trivial in retrospect. Never the less, here are some much-less-controversial solved problems (from http://www.philosophyetc.net/2008/02/examples-of-solved-philosophy.html)
Knowledge does not require certainty. But nor does justified true belief suffice.
Psychological egoism is false: it is possible to act from non-selfish desires, i.e. for some good other than your own welfare.
Rational egoism is false: we are not rationally required to always and only act in our own self-interest.
(E.g. Moral) Principles may take situational variables into account without thereby sacrificing their claim to objectivity.
The question whether God actually exists is independent of the question whether there is genuine normativity (“ought”-ness).
Valuing tolerance needn’t lead one to moral relativism. (Quite the opposite.)
Red herrings may (and black ravens may not) constitute evidence that all ravens are black.
It’s not analytic (true by definition) that cats are animals. But it is metaphysically necessary: there is no possible world containing a cat that is not an animal.
Slightly more controversial:
“Common-sense” morality, with its agent-relative ends, is self-defeating.
Capitalism is not intrinsically just. (Libertarianism must be defended on consequentialist grounds, if any. Those who think otherwise are confused about the nature of property and coercion.)
It is possible for desires (or ultimate ends) to be irrational. So there is more to rationality than just instrumental rationality.
One may be harmed by events that took place prior to their coming into existence.
It’s as though there were a separate subfield of mathematics devoted entirely to proposing axioms and definitions, and someone was defending that subfield against criticisms that it doesn’t produce “results” simply by listing some of the definitions that have become standard.
Of course definitions are important, but this kind of exercise seems futile.
Number 8 is a case in point. It may as well simply state “Kripke’s theory of alethic modal operators and natural kinds has become standard”. Which is true, and Kripke’s theory is interesting in many ways, but sometimes it’s more of a hindrance than a help: There’s this theory of “2 dimensional semantics” whose entire purpose (as far as I can tell) is to allow philosophers to pay lip service to Kripke’s theory while ignoring it in practice.
(To fit the pieces together, follow the link above, substituting “cats” for “water” and “animals” for “H2O”; and also read Richard Chappell’s post.)
Thanks for posting my list! Looking back, I think the third “more controversial” one (about the irrationality of some ultimate desires, e.g. Future Tuesday Indifference) probably doesn’t belong on the list. I do think it is very interesting and probably true, but that’s a different matter.
I disagree with this. First, to make sure I know what you mean, you’re basically saying that “that cat-like thing I see” is not, by definition, a cat. If we took a full description of a cat’s biology to be the definition then it would be an animal by definition. Did I get all that right?
I don’t think it’s possible to prove a statement to be synthetic (the opposite of analytic—do LessWrongians know these words?) unless you prove that there is no possible way to show something by definition. In this case, it seems that we have just failed to show that the statement was analytic rather than proving it to be synthetic.
I’m not sure I follow your objection. In natural language, the meaning of ‘cat’ is fixed by ostention, not descriptive stipulation. We (most of us, at least) mean something like “that cat-like thing I see”. If it turns out that the cat-like creatures of our worlds are cleverly disguised robots, rather than animals, we would conclude that cats are robots, not that our world contains no cats. Hence the meaning of our word ‘cat’ does not include their animality.
You could, of course, introduce a new term ‘shcat’ which you stipulate means “cat-like animal”. So then the situation I’ve described above would be one in which we learn that our world contains no shcats. But the English word ‘cat’ does not function like this. And the interesting Kripkean point is just that we can (and often do) define words by ostension, which can then display this interesting behaviour of featuring in claims that are metaphysically necessary but not analytic. That is: it’s the possibility of such a distinction, rather than any particular instance of it, which is the really interesting thing here.
I agree with this. I do not know much about the philosophy of language, so I did not know that this was the consensus on the definitions of words like ‘cat’.
I am not sure that there is a possible distinction in this case. It is metaphysically necessary that cats are necessary, but we have not proved it to be synthetic.
I would take such a list with care. The author claims that the only disagreements on such points come from grossly confused people, which he compares to creationists. Being a grad student at Princeton is a solid credential, but not enough that I would take him at face value while he advances as “settled” propositions that he needed to defend, and not simply present, on his blog.
(Disclosure: I find at least two of his defences of the statements above to be unconvincing, so I am pretty biased against him; at the same time, while I am certainly spottily educated on the subject, I still put enough weight on my own judgment and on the nature of my disagreements that I’m not going to adopt the assumption that I am the confused one.)
Fair enough. Out of interest, which ones did you disagree with?
Nr. 3 (he hinges it on an rather unconvincing argument that time displacement—i.e. caring for your future self—is comparable to agent displacement—i.e. caring for someone else) and Nr. 5 (the argument is fine, but he’s arguing against what I consider a strawman - it’s not that without God morality disappears from the hyperuranian realm, it’s that it loses a universal judge-enforcer which has some pretty harsh implications, especially for a materialist).
I don’t think it’s a strawman. When you corner a theist on this point, she will often claim that god provides objective morality regardless of the existence of hell (or other punishments). They really are claiming that without God, morality disappears—hence the relativists can’t justify anything schtick. And hence the standard non-answer to the Euthyphro dilemma, as opposed to simply admitting, “Yes, it’s above him but he enforces it.”
Hypouranian?
No, I did mean hyperuranian.
Oh. But aren’t we more interested in whether there’s morality in the hypouranian realm? Below the heavens, rather than above? I mean, imagine a theist (maybe it had better be a deist) who believes that God exists and determines moral values—but only for other gods. If convinced that God doesn’t exist after all, she might feel that morality had disappeared from the hyperuranian realm, but why would she care?
Hyperuranian realm = the world of ideas, as opposed to the world of physical matter. The proposition that blogger is attacking is that, without God, morality would lose its value as a concept. Quote:
Aha, gotcha. Thanks.