This has approximately zero relationship to the way political campaigns (or anything else) happens in the real world, where campaign managers are part of an ideologically biased social network. In fact, their job is essentially to strengthen the connections between voters and a candidate, by whatever means necessary, mostly through propaganda (aka advertising) that combines emotional appeal with the occasional smidgen of rational argument.
Maybe it would be a better world if people didn’t work this way, but they do, and I don’t see any prospect of changing this. I’m not even sure how rationality can be applied to most electoral issues. Take the issue of abortion. Either you believe abortion is immoral, or not. You can apply rationality to figure out which candidate supports your moral point of view, but it’s not much help in setting your root moral values. So how can you make an unbiased choice?
Elections are all about trying to get people who share your biases into power. I know the self-proclaimed rationalists here think the whole process is icky, but part of being rational is dealing with the real world, not the world as you would like it.
That being said, there’s room in the electoral process for a bias in favor of rationality, science, humanism, and enlightenment. I think it’s pretty clear which of the two major political parties in the US favor those values.
Rationality has plenty to say about whether abortion is morally permissible.
Are fetuses sentient, for example? Do they feel pain?
What would happen socially, economically, if we outlawed abortion? Who would benefit? Who would be harmed? How much?
If you’re a strict utilitarian, moral problems reduce to factual problems. But even if you’re not, facts often have a great deal to say about morality. This is especially true in issues like economics and foreign policy, where the goals are largely undisputed and it’s the facts and methods that are in question. I challenge you to find an American politician who says he wants to increase poverty or undermine American national security. “We need 10% of Americans to starve! And by the way, I hope China invades!” (I guess I should hedge my bets and say that such bizarre people may exist—after all, Creationists do—but they aren’t likely to get a lot of votes from any party.)
Also, rationality can assess the arguments used for and against political positions. If one side is using a lot of hard data and the other one is making a lot of logical fallacies… that’s should give you a pretty good idea of which side to be on. (It’s no guarantee, but what is?)
First you need to decide what gives utility points to you, which is a moral problem.
I consider most computer programs to be sentient, with their work memory being sentience, i also see pain as just a bit of programming that makes creatures avoid things causing it, not different from some regulators i have programmed. Therefore i don´t care if fetuses are sentient or feel pain, so for me that does not affect the utility calculation. But most people do not agree.
This has approximately zero relationship to the way political campaigns (or anything else) happens in the real world, where campaign managers are part of an ideologically biased social network. In fact, their job is essentially to strengthen the connections between voters and a candidate, by whatever means necessary, mostly through propaganda (aka advertising) that combines emotional appeal with the occasional smidgen of rational argument.
Maybe it would be a better world if people didn’t work this way, but they do, and I don’t see any prospect of changing this. I’m not even sure how rationality can be applied to most electoral issues. Take the issue of abortion. Either you believe abortion is immoral, or not. You can apply rationality to figure out which candidate supports your moral point of view, but it’s not much help in setting your root moral values. So how can you make an unbiased choice?
Elections are all about trying to get people who share your biases into power. I know the self-proclaimed rationalists here think the whole process is icky, but part of being rational is dealing with the real world, not the world as you would like it.
That being said, there’s room in the electoral process for a bias in favor of rationality, science, humanism, and enlightenment. I think it’s pretty clear which of the two major political parties in the US favor those values.
Rationality has plenty to say about whether abortion is morally permissible.
Are fetuses sentient, for example? Do they feel pain? What would happen socially, economically, if we outlawed abortion? Who would benefit? Who would be harmed? How much?
If you’re a strict utilitarian, moral problems reduce to factual problems. But even if you’re not, facts often have a great deal to say about morality. This is especially true in issues like economics and foreign policy, where the goals are largely undisputed and it’s the facts and methods that are in question. I challenge you to find an American politician who says he wants to increase poverty or undermine American national security. “We need 10% of Americans to starve! And by the way, I hope China invades!” (I guess I should hedge my bets and say that such bizarre people may exist—after all, Creationists do—but they aren’t likely to get a lot of votes from any party.)
Also, rationality can assess the arguments used for and against political positions. If one side is using a lot of hard data and the other one is making a lot of logical fallacies… that’s should give you a pretty good idea of which side to be on. (It’s no guarantee, but what is?)
First you need to decide what gives utility points to you, which is a moral problem. I consider most computer programs to be sentient, with their work memory being sentience, i also see pain as just a bit of programming that makes creatures avoid things causing it, not different from some regulators i have programmed. Therefore i don´t care if fetuses are sentient or feel pain, so for me that does not affect the utility calculation. But most people do not agree.