I doubt you’ll find anyone here seriously saying that we’ve found a definitive theory of metaethics. That is our eventual goal, yes, but right now, there are at best several competing theories. No absolutely correct theory has even been proposed, much less endorsed by the majority of LW. So the answer to your question (“Why do people believe it?”) is, as far as I can tell, “They don’t.” My question, however, is why you think this is something really bad, as opposed to something just slightly bad.
From Vaniver’s comment:
What “it” are you speaking of?
The lesswrongian theory of ethics, If you don’t believe there is such a singular entity, you couldn’t say so...I’m hardly going to disagree.
I doubt you’ll find anyone here seriously saying that we’ve found a definitive theory of metaethics. That is our eventual goal, yes, but right now, there are at best several competing theories. No absolutely correct theory has even been proposed, much less endorsed by the majority of LW. So the answer to your question (“Why do people believe it?”) is, as far as I can tell, “They don’t.” My question, however, is why you think this is something really bad, as opposed to something just slightly bad.
If you look upthread, youll see that what I think is really bad is advising people not to study mainstream philosophy.
I also think it bad to call philosophy diseased for not being able to solve problems you can’t solve either.
And it might be an idea to add a warning to the metaethics sequences: “Before reading these million words, please note that they don’t go anywhere”.