I’m Against Moral Progress. I don’t think moral progress the way we usually talk about it is well founded. We observe moral change, then we decide since past moral change made values ever more like our present values on average, something that is nearly a tautology, the process itself must be good, despite us having no clear understanding of how it works.
Such confusion fogs many people on a similar process, evolution, having noticed they like opposable thumbs and that over time past hominids have come to resemble present hominids ever more they often imagine evolution to be an inherently good process. This is a horribly wrong perception.
Younger people haven’t been right, they merely won the demographic battle and had their way.
Young people in general are good at picking winners, and quickly adapting to what is popular. Younger people’s status quo bias will also fixate on newer norms compared to older people with aliefs the status quo is something else. Winners will also tend to try and influence them, especially in our society where voting power and public opinion grant legitimacy.
Younger people haven’t been right, but despite being a young person who has over the past 3 years drifted strongly towards traditional values, I can’t say they were wrong either. They simply had a different value set from the older generations before them.
Consider that currently monogamy or not flaying people alive is still valued both by the old and the young. We don’t feel a need to explain why this is so. But should very convincing PeopleFlayers land in Central Park (LW2014 would think this bad) or should Polyamory continue to gain ground (LW2014 would think this good) in 20 years we would be wondering why young people are into PeopleFlaying and Polyamory and older people are not as much, and if this says something important about the nature of morality.
I’m Against Moral Progress. I don’t think moral progress the way we usually talk about it is well founded. We observe moral change, then we decide since past moral change made values ever more like our present values on average, something that is nearly a tautology, the process itself must be good, despite us having no clear understanding of how it works.
Such confusion fogs many people on a similar process, evolution, having noticed they like opposable thumbs and that over time past hominids have come to resemble present hominids ever more they often imagine evolution to be an inherently good process. This is a horribly wrong perception.
Young people in general are good at picking winners, and quickly adapting to what is popular. Younger people’s status quo bias will also fixate on newer norms compared to older people with aliefs the status quo is something else. Winners will also tend to try and influence them, especially in our society where voting power and public opinion grant legitimacy.
Younger people haven’t been right, but despite being a young person who has over the past 3 years drifted strongly towards traditional values, I can’t say they were wrong either. They simply had a different value set from the older generations before them.
Consider that currently monogamy or not flaying people alive is still valued both by the old and the young. We don’t feel a need to explain why this is so. But should very convincing PeopleFlayers land in Central Park (LW2014 would think this bad) or should Polyamory continue to gain ground (LW2014 would think this good) in 20 years we would be wondering why young people are into PeopleFlaying and Polyamory and older people are not as much, and if this says something important about the nature of morality.