Don’t worry about spoiling the story. I write these stories with the comment section in mind. Because the comments here are so good, I can write harder puzzles than would otherwise be publishable. (Also, your comments are great, in general, and I want to encourage them.)
It’s been two years since I’ve published this story. I feel that enough time has passed that I can answer some of your questions.
Spoilers below, I guess.
One tricky thing about writing a public forum is you have to satisfy multiple audiences at once. Some people do this by dumbing things down as far as possible. Others do it by tediously defining terms at the beginning, or scaring away their non-target audience. I like to write stories that mean different things to different people. Sometimes it happens by accident. This time it was deliberate.
To put things simply, I wrote for two groups of people.
People who are confused about whether ethics is objective or subjective. I once earned the respect of a student by tripping him into contradicting himself on this subject. I got him to make the following three claims: (1) ethics must be objective or subjective, (2) ethics is not objective, and (3) ethics is not subjective. He realized he had contradicted himself, but couldn’t find the error. Then, instead of telling him where he had made a mistake, I just let him wrestle with the paradox. It was fun! In my model of the world, most people fall into this category, simply because they haven’t thought very hard about philosophy. People on this website are the exception. For the unrelfective majority, my story is an exercise to help them learn how to think.
For people who aren’t confused about whether ethics is objective or subjective, this story isn’t a puzzle at all. It is a joke about D&D-style alignment systems.
As for honor systems, I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to explain them to modern-day leftists. It’s usually way too advanced for them. Instead, I start with simpler, concrete things, like how Native Americans fought wars, or how British impressment interacted with the American national identity in the Napoleonic Wars. I need to throw dirt into the memetic malware before I can explain alien ideas.
It made me think that maybe you’re better calibrated than I am about normal elites, and made it slightly plausible (given apparent base rates) that… maybe you agree with them?
You flatter me.
But maybe it is NOT a lack of understanding of honor or duty or deputation? Maybe the breakdown involves a lack of something even deeper?
It’s the legacy of postmodernism, and all its offspring, including Wokism.
But to answer your real question, what we call “ethics” is an imprecise word with several reasonable definitions. Much like the word “cat” can refer to a chibi drawing of a cat or the DNA of a cat, the word “ethics” fails to disambiguate between several reasonable definitions. Some of these reasonable definitions are objective. Others are subjective. If you’re using a word with reasonable-yet-mutually-exclusive definitions and the person you’re talking with believes such a thing is impossible (many people do), then you can play tricks on them.
″...I would like to prove to the Court Philosopher that I’m right and he’s wrong.”
This part of the story tickles me more, reading it a second time.
I like to write stories that mean different things to different people …this story isn’t a puzzle at all. It is a joke about D&D-style alignment systems.
And it kinda resonates with this bit. In both cases there’s a certain flexibility. The flexibility itself is unexpected, but reasonable safe… which is often a formula for comedy? It is funny to see the flexibility in Phil as he “goes social”, and also funny to see it in you as you “go authorial” :-)
Don’t worry about spoiling the story. I write these stories with the comment section in mind. Because the comments here are so good, I can write harder puzzles than would otherwise be publishable. (Also, your comments are great, in general, and I want to encourage them.)
It’s been two years since I’ve published this story. I feel that enough time has passed that I can answer some of your questions.
Spoilers below, I guess.
One tricky thing about writing a public forum is you have to satisfy multiple audiences at once. Some people do this by dumbing things down as far as possible. Others do it by tediously defining terms at the beginning, or scaring away their non-target audience. I like to write stories that mean different things to different people. Sometimes it happens by accident. This time it was deliberate.
To put things simply, I wrote for two groups of people.
People who are confused about whether ethics is objective or subjective. I once earned the respect of a student by tripping him into contradicting himself on this subject. I got him to make the following three claims: (1) ethics must be objective or subjective, (2) ethics is not objective, and (3) ethics is not subjective. He realized he had contradicted himself, but couldn’t find the error. Then, instead of telling him where he had made a mistake, I just let him wrestle with the paradox. It was fun! In my model of the world, most people fall into this category, simply because they haven’t thought very hard about philosophy. People on this website are the exception. For the unrelfective majority, my story is an exercise to help them learn how to think.
For people who aren’t confused about whether ethics is objective or subjective, this story isn’t a puzzle at all. It is a joke about D&D-style alignment systems.
As for honor systems, I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to explain them to modern-day leftists. It’s usually way too advanced for them. Instead, I start with simpler, concrete things, like how Native Americans fought wars, or how British impressment interacted with the American national identity in the Napoleonic Wars. I need to throw dirt into the memetic malware before I can explain alien ideas.
You flatter me.
It’s the legacy of postmodernism, and all its offspring, including Wokism.
But to answer your real question, what we call “ethics” is an imprecise word with several reasonable definitions. Much like the word “cat” can refer to a chibi drawing of a cat or the DNA of a cat, the word “ethics” fails to disambiguate between several reasonable definitions. Some of these reasonable definitions are objective. Others are subjective. If you’re using a word with reasonable-yet-mutually-exclusive definitions and the person you’re talking with believes such a thing is impossible (many people do), then you can play tricks on them.
Thank you for the response <3
This part of the story tickles me more, reading it a second time.
And it kinda resonates with this bit. In both cases there’s a certain flexibility. The flexibility itself is unexpected, but reasonable safe… which is often a formula for comedy? It is funny to see the flexibility in Phil as he “goes social”, and also funny to see it in you as you “go authorial” :-)