I happen to like helping people, Hitler happens to like hurting people, and we can both condemn each other if we want but both of our likes are equally valid.
Rather, “validity” equally fails to be meaningful for both of you. I think the “equally valid” phrasing makes it too easy to slip into saying silly things like “because all values are equally valid, you must never condemn another’s.” On the pure preference view, there’s no reason not to condemn and even fight others because of their wants if doing so increases satisfaction of your own.
It’s possible that if Hitler had known more (about the Jews, the causal origins of nationalism, and, most importantly, what it was like to be in Auschwitz) and thought better (rejected nationalism as arbitrary, suffered less political self-deception, recognized the expected consequences of war) he would have done very differently. If so, I see this as sufficient to say he was wrong. The math of rationality says nothing about empathy for women or people with different-colored skin (or anybody), but humans, or at least human societies in the long run, have a hard time maintaining such arbitrary distinctions. That the circle of empathy doesn’t expand quicker just shows the strength of self-interested biases/subselves.
I don’t know where this leaves genuine psychopaths, though.
It’s possible that if Hitler had known more (about the Jews, the causal origins of nationalism, and, most importantly, what it was like to be in Auschwitz) and thought better (rejected nationalism as arbitrary, suffered less political self-deception, recognized the expected consequences of war) he would have done very differently. If so, I see this as sufficient to say he was wrong. The math of rationality says nothing about empathy for women or people with different-colored skin (or anybody), but humans, or at least human societies in the long run, have a hard time maintaining such arbitrary distinctions. That the circle of empathy doesn’t expand quicker just shows the strength of self-interested biases/subselves.
I don’t know where this leaves genuine psychopaths, though.