For Super Extra Bonus Questions: (feel free to modify the answer choices)
With which of these metaethical positions do you most identify?
Non-cognitivism: Moral statements don’t express propositions and can neither be true nor false. “Murder is wrong” means something like “Boo murder!”.
Error theory: Moral statements have a truth-value, but attempt to describe features of the world that don’t exist. “Murder is wrong” and “Murder is right” are both false statements because moral rightness and wrongness aren’t features that exist.
Subjectivism: Some moral statements are true, but not universally, and the truth of a moral statement is determined by non-universal opinions or prescriptions, and there is no non-attitudinal determinant of rightness and wrongness. “Murder is wrong” means something like “My culture has judged murder to be wrong” or “I’ve judged murder to be wrong”.
Substantive realism: Some moral statements are true, and the truth of a moral statement is determined by mind-independent moral properties. “Murder is wrong” means that murder has an objective mind-independent property of wrongness that we discover by empirical investigation, intuition, or some other method.
Constructivism: Some moral statements are true, and the truth of a moral statement is determined by whether an agent would accept it if they were undergoing a process of rational deliberation. “Murder is wrong” can mean something like “Societal agreement to the rule ‘do not murder’ is instrumentally rational”.
With which ethical position do you most closely identify?
Utilitarianism
Egoism
Contractualism
Contractarianism
Other Consequentialism
Kantianism
Divine Command
Other Deontology
Natural Law
Aristotelian Virtue Ethics
Stoic Virtue Ethics
Epicurean Virtue Ethics
Other Virtue Ethics
Intuitionism
With which of these broad political groupings do you most closely identify?
Progressivism (Includes American progressives, European social democrats, socialists, communists, left-wing anarchists, the social justice movement, etc. Important values include economic and social equality, liberation of oppressed groups, and democracy.)
Liberalism (Includes European liberals, libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, etc. Important values include freedom of association, individual autonomy, and technological progress.)
Conservatism (Includes American conservatives, Christian democrats, nationalists, neoreactionaries, etc. Important values include tradition, bonds within communities, and patriotism.)
“Moral nihilism is the meta-ethical view that nothing is intrinsically moral or immoral.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_nihilism) Utility functions (aka morality) are (is) in the mind, not in Nature. That would probably be the answer of most LWers. Otherwise, you’ll have to tell me what you mean by morality.
Is utilitarianism used as “maximizing happiness” or “maximizing utility”. If it’s “maximizing utility”, well isn’t that everyone’s position? What differs is simply what counts as “utility”.
That is an inaccurate definition of nihilism because it doesn’t match what nihilists actually believe. Not only do they reject intrinsic morality, they reject all forms of morality altogether. Someone who believes in any kind of moral normativity (e.g. a utilitarian) cannot be a nihilist.
Utilitarianism is used as “the normative ethical theory that one ought to maximize the utility of the world”. This is in contrast to something like egoism (“the normative ethical theory that one ought to maximize one’s own utility”) and other forms of consequentialism.
Do nihilists think they have no goals (aka terminal values) or do nihilists think they don’t have goals about fulfilling others’ goals or is it something else?
Utilitarianism is used as “the normative ethical theory that one ought to maximize the utility of the world”.
Ok so would that be right to say this?:
Utilitarianism is giving equal weight to everyone’s utility function (including yours) in your “meta” utility function.
Egoism means you don’t consider others’ utility function in your utility function.
And then there is everything in-between (meaning giving more weight to your utility function than to other’s utility function in your “meta” utility function).
Do nihilists think they have no goals (aka terminal values) or do nihilists think they don’t have goals about fulfilling others’ goals or is it something else?
I am not a nihilist, and I don’t know if I’d be able to pass an Ideological Turing Test as one, but to give my best answer to this, the nihilist would say that there are no moral oughts. How they connect this to terminal goals varies depending on the nihilist.
Ok so would that be right to say this?: Utilitarianism is giving equal weight to everyone’s utility function (including yours) in your “meta” utility function. Egoism means you don’t consider others’ utility function in your utility function.
The first part, kind of, the second part, no. The utilitarian holds that the right thing to do is determined by what maximizes world utility, which is produced by utility functions. All utility, including your own, is given equal weight in the “moral decision” function. As for egoism, it simply means that you consider others’ utility functions to the degree that they’re a part of your utility function. It doesn’t mean that you disregard them altogether.
For Super Extra Bonus Questions: (feel free to modify the answer choices)
With which of these metaethical positions do you most identify?
Non-cognitivism: Moral statements don’t express propositions and can neither be true nor false. “Murder is wrong” means something like “Boo murder!”.
Error theory: Moral statements have a truth-value, but attempt to describe features of the world that don’t exist. “Murder is wrong” and “Murder is right” are both false statements because moral rightness and wrongness aren’t features that exist.
Subjectivism: Some moral statements are true, but not universally, and the truth of a moral statement is determined by non-universal opinions or prescriptions, and there is no non-attitudinal determinant of rightness and wrongness. “Murder is wrong” means something like “My culture has judged murder to be wrong” or “I’ve judged murder to be wrong”.
Substantive realism: Some moral statements are true, and the truth of a moral statement is determined by mind-independent moral properties. “Murder is wrong” means that murder has an objective mind-independent property of wrongness that we discover by empirical investigation, intuition, or some other method.
Constructivism: Some moral statements are true, and the truth of a moral statement is determined by whether an agent would accept it if they were undergoing a process of rational deliberation. “Murder is wrong” can mean something like “Societal agreement to the rule ‘do not murder’ is instrumentally rational”.
With which ethical position do you most closely identify?
Utilitarianism
Egoism
Contractualism
Contractarianism
Other Consequentialism
Kantianism
Divine Command
Other Deontology
Natural Law
Aristotelian Virtue Ethics
Stoic Virtue Ethics
Epicurean Virtue Ethics
Other Virtue Ethics
Intuitionism
With which of these broad political groupings do you most closely identify?
Progressivism (Includes American progressives, European social democrats, socialists, communists, left-wing anarchists, the social justice movement, etc. Important values include economic and social equality, liberation of oppressed groups, and democracy.)
Liberalism (Includes European liberals, libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, etc. Important values include freedom of association, individual autonomy, and technological progress.)
Conservatism (Includes American conservatives, Christian democrats, nationalists, neoreactionaries, etc. Important values include tradition, bonds within communities, and patriotism.)
Could you have less fine-grained answers, so that I don’t have to spend a week on the SEP just to know what the answers mean?
If you want less fine-grained answers, there’s the consequentialism/deontology/virtue ethics question in the earlier part of the survey.
Or “Let’s please not murder”, which doesn’t express a proposition either.
“Moral nihilism is the meta-ethical view that nothing is intrinsically moral or immoral.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_nihilism) Utility functions (aka morality) are (is) in the mind, not in Nature. That would probably be the answer of most LWers. Otherwise, you’ll have to tell me what you mean by morality.
Is utilitarianism used as “maximizing happiness” or “maximizing utility”. If it’s “maximizing utility”, well isn’t that everyone’s position? What differs is simply what counts as “utility”.
That is an inaccurate definition of nihilism because it doesn’t match what nihilists actually believe. Not only do they reject intrinsic morality, they reject all forms of morality altogether. Someone who believes in any kind of moral normativity (e.g. a utilitarian) cannot be a nihilist.
Utilitarianism is used as “the normative ethical theory that one ought to maximize the utility of the world”. This is in contrast to something like egoism (“the normative ethical theory that one ought to maximize one’s own utility”) and other forms of consequentialism.
Thank you for your answer.
Do nihilists think they have no goals (aka terminal values) or do nihilists think they don’t have goals about fulfilling others’ goals or is it something else?
Ok so would that be right to say this?: Utilitarianism is giving equal weight to everyone’s utility function (including yours) in your “meta” utility function. Egoism means you don’t consider others’ utility function in your utility function.
And then there is everything in-between (meaning giving more weight to your utility function than to other’s utility function in your “meta” utility function).
I am not a nihilist, and I don’t know if I’d be able to pass an Ideological Turing Test as one, but to give my best answer to this, the nihilist would say that there are no moral oughts. How they connect this to terminal goals varies depending on the nihilist.
The first part, kind of, the second part, no. The utilitarian holds that the right thing to do is determined by what maximizes world utility, which is produced by utility functions. All utility, including your own, is given equal weight in the “moral decision” function. As for egoism, it simply means that you consider others’ utility functions to the degree that they’re a part of your utility function. It doesn’t mean that you disregard them altogether.
Ok thanks for your answers!