Hmm, unrelated, I guess. Why is it interesting to think about Kant’s stab at moral philosophy? We don’t bother using Newton’s original notation for his laws, because we understand them a lot better by now. Is reading Kant mostly of historical interest, or is there something that can still be useful now?
He’s on my mind because I’ve heard folks talking about him in response to SBF’s naive utilitarianism and the bad consequences that caused (assuming you think that’s what’s going on with SBF). Specifically folks have been taking a fresh look at deontology, and it crystalized just enough to turn into a post instead of a Twitter thread.
Why is it interesting to think about Kant’s stab at moral philosophy?
Where is the progress beyond it? The rationalsphere has only recently progressed from naive utilitarianism to something like rule consequentialism or Kantianism....it’s playing catch up.
That was my question, whether there has been much progress. My guess is that Eliezer eventually converged to the obvious, utilitarianism within reasonable deontological rules inspired by the virtues held by the person. This resolves the edge cases like whether to be honest with a killer at the door (no, because it would conflict with your values). This doesn’t seem like anything very new, but it certainly departs from pure deontology and pure utilitarianism
Hmm, unrelated, I guess. Why is it interesting to think about Kant’s stab at moral philosophy? We don’t bother using Newton’s original notation for his laws, because we understand them a lot better by now. Is reading Kant mostly of historical interest, or is there something that can still be useful now?
He’s on my mind because I’ve heard folks talking about him in response to SBF’s naive utilitarianism and the bad consequences that caused (assuming you think that’s what’s going on with SBF). Specifically folks have been taking a fresh look at deontology, and it crystalized just enough to turn into a post instead of a Twitter thread.
Gotcha, thanks! I guess the SBF debacle has a high enough profile that people question their own normative ethics.
Where is the progress beyond it? The rationalsphere has only recently progressed from naive utilitarianism to something like rule consequentialism or Kantianism....it’s playing catch up.
That was my question, whether there has been much progress. My guess is that Eliezer eventually converged to the obvious, utilitarianism within reasonable deontological rules inspired by the virtues held by the person. This resolves the edge cases like whether to be honest with a killer at the door (no, because it would conflict with your values). This doesn’t seem like anything very new, but it certainly departs from pure deontology and pure utilitarianism