I agree, we tend to instinctively rely on virtue ethics. And this means that we are not psychopaths.
Our apparent reliance on virtue ethics is a result of the classical conditioning of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that has been drilled into us since birth. “Bad Timmy! Stealing candy from the store is WONG!” is very negative reinforcement for a behavior.
If we could truly abandon our trained value system for pure consequentialism, then we would all be really good at running companies. But most people are not psychopaths, and more importantly most people do not enjoy spending time with psychopaths. So for the goal of sharing effective social interaction, it is probably for the best that we hold onto instictive virtue ethics.
Now could we change this in our children with a different style of training? “Bad Timmy! Stealing candy breaks down the implicit trust that allows our economy to operate at impressive levels of efficiency!”
Hi,
I was introduced to LW by a friend of mine but I will admit I dismissed it fairly quickly as internet philosophy. I came out to a meetup on a recent trip to visit him and I really enjoyed the caliber of people I met there. It has given me reason to come back and be impressed by this community.
I studied Math and a little bit of Philosophy in undergrad. I’m here mostly to learn, and hopefully to meet some interesting people. I enjoy a good discussion and I especially enjoy having someone change my mind but I lose interest quickly when I realize that the other party has too much ego involved to even consider changing his or her mind.
I look forward to learning from you all!
Matt