Metaethics here is understood as an ideal procedure that humans are approximating when they reason about ethics i.e. when they are trying to build ethical theories.
That would make sense except that “metaethics” already has a different meaning in academic philosophy, namely studying what morality itself is. (See my Six Plausible Meta-Ethical Alternatives for a really quick intro to the main metaethical positions that I think are plausible.)
What you’re calling “metaethics” here corresponds better to what philosophers call metaphilosophy. I’ve been pushing the importance of researching metaphilosophy in the context of AI alignment for a while, so it’s nice to see someone reach similar conclusions independently. :) If you’re interested in my thoughts on the topic, see Some Thoughts on Metaphilosophy and the posts that it links to.
Thanks for all the useful links! I’m also always happy to receive more feedback.
I agree that the sense in which I use metaethics in this post is different from what academic philosophers usually call metaethics. I have the impression that metaethics, in academic sense, and metaphilosophy are somehow related. Studying what morality itself is, how to select ethical theories and what is the process behind ethical reasoning seems not independent. For example if moral nihilism is more plausible then it seems to be less likely that there is some meaningful feedback loop to select ethical theories or that there is such a meaningful thing as a ‘good’ ethical theory (at least in an observer independent way) . If moral emotivism is more plausible then maybe reflecting on ethics is more like emotions rationalisation, e.g. typically expressing in a sophisticated way something that just fundamentally means ‘boo suffering’. In that case having better understanding of metaethics in the academic sense seems to bring some light to a process that generates ethical theories, at least in humans.
That would make sense except that “metaethics” already has a different meaning in academic philosophy, namely studying what morality itself is. (See my Six Plausible Meta-Ethical Alternatives for a really quick intro to the main metaethical positions that I think are plausible.)
What you’re calling “metaethics” here corresponds better to what philosophers call metaphilosophy. I’ve been pushing the importance of researching metaphilosophy in the context of AI alignment for a while, so it’s nice to see someone reach similar conclusions independently. :) If you’re interested in my thoughts on the topic, see Some Thoughts on Metaphilosophy and the posts that it links to.
Another line of thinking that’s related is CEV.
(I’ll probably come back and give some more detailed feedback on the rest of the content, but just wanted to fire off these quick notes for now.)
Thanks for all the useful links! I’m also always happy to receive more feedback.
I agree that the sense in which I use metaethics in this post is different from what academic philosophers usually call metaethics. I have the impression that metaethics, in academic sense, and metaphilosophy are somehow related. Studying what morality itself is, how to select ethical theories and what is the process behind ethical reasoning seems not independent. For example if moral nihilism is more plausible then it seems to be less likely that there is some meaningful feedback loop to select ethical theories or that there is such a meaningful thing as a ‘good’ ethical theory (at least in an observer independent way) . If moral emotivism is more plausible then maybe reflecting on ethics is more like emotions rationalisation, e.g. typically expressing in a sophisticated way something that just fundamentally means ‘boo suffering’. In that case having better understanding of metaethics in the academic sense seems to bring some light to a process that generates ethical theories, at least in humans.